Japan closes the pacifist era with Takaichi's strengthened majority

TokyoJapanese voters have given a resounding victory to the Prime Minister's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Sanae Takaichi in the legislative elections held this Sunday. The two-thirds supermajority achieved by the ruling bloc gives Takaichi a key to dismantling the cornerstone of postwar Japan: constitutional pacifism. This result places the government in a position of strength unprecedented in decades, decisively expanding its room for maneuver and leaving the opposition at its weakest point since 1945.

of postwar Japan. With the lower house under its control, the government gains the capacity to advance an agenda marked by strengthening security, the sustained increase in defense spending, and the reopening of the debate on revising the pacifist Constitution. Without a majority in the upper house, but with a very favorable balance of power, the Executive begins a new stage characterized by a concentration of power that could redefine both the country's internal balance and its role in East Asia.

Changes in economic and fiscal policy

In her first statements after the results were announced, Sanae Takaichi told public broadcaster NHK that the election was intended to secure a clear mandate to implement profound changes in the country's economic and fiscal policies. The prime minister acknowledged that her government is considering far-reaching measures, such as a significant increase in public spending and the approval of a substantial supplementary budget, and stressed that these decisions could not be made without explicit validation from the electorate. "When a government substantially alters its fundamental policies, it needs the support of the people," she said. She also insisted that the result legitimizes her administration to move forward "with determination" despite political and social resistance. On the other side of the political spectrum, the defeat has triggered an immediate crisis for the opposition, which has been unable to capitalize on public discontent and build a credible alternative to the ruling bloc. The co-chairs of the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA), Yoshihiko Noda and Tetsuo Saito, have declined to confirm their continued leadership after election results that have left the party at historic lows. Speaking to NHK, Noda acknowledged having made a decision about his political future, although he postponed the announcement until an internal leadership meeting. Saito, meanwhile, defended the need to preserve the new centrist force and announced the start of a process to redefine its leadership. The failure of the CRA, created with the ambition of challenging the LDP's hegemony, accentuates the fragmentation of the opposition and leaves the government without a clear parliamentary counterweight.

Review the postwar framework

With the new balance of power resulting from the elections, one of the major strategic objectives of Takaichi and her supporters is to place the revision of the postwar pacifist framework at the center of Japanese political debate. The government's strengthened majority does not point to an immediate break, but it does consolidate a gradual strategy that normalizes rearmament and expands the role of the Self-Defense Forces, which until now have been constrained by the Constitution. The pacifist consensus that has characterized Japan since 1945 is thus entering a profound phase of revision.

The political shift driven by the Prime Minister is also reflected in a more restrictive conception of national identity at a time of intense demographic pressure. Despite the growing need for foreign labor to sustain key sectors of the economy, the government has opted to reinforce a discourse of control over immigrationavoiding presenting it as a structural solution to the population decline. This ambivalence—economic openness without full social integration—resonates with an aging and insecure electorate, more receptive to nationalist and orderly messages than to proposals for profound social transformation. In the absence of a clear alternative from the opposition, the narrative of security, identity, and stability has become the dominant framework of the new political cycle.

The election result consolidates the LDP's largest victory in history and gives Takaichi unprecedented political leeway to advance his agenda. With a strengthened majority, the government can push forward with rearmament, normalize constitutional revision, and define a new role for Japan in East Asia, while maintaining internal control and the cohesion of the ruling bloc. The defeat of the opposition and the fragmentation of its rivals reinforces its position, and citizens have endorsed at the ballot box a shift that confirms the effective closure of postwar pacifist Japan and opens a stage of power concentration and redefinition of the country's international role.