Takaichi

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is on course for a sweeping victory in snap elections, with her ruling bloc securing a two-thirds majority in the powerful lower house, according to media estimates Sunday, a result likely to buoy her agenda while unnerving Beijing and financial markets. Early projections show the Liberal Democratic Party winning about 300 of the 465 seats contested — up from 198 in the last vote — positioning Takaichi’s party to regain a stand-alone majority and possibly a supermajority without…

Japan’s choice of a conservative woman to lead the ruling party reframes familiar dilemmas The Liberal Democratic Party’s selection of Sanae Takaichi as its leader — a 64‑year‑old conservative who could become Japan’s first female prime minister — is less a break with the past than a new turn in an old playbook. Her victory, against younger and more moderate rivals, signals the LDP’s attempt to recapture voters unsettled by inflation, stagnating wages and a rising appetite for parties that promise real change on immigration…