this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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The vote will decide all 465 seats in parliament’s lower house and mark Takaichi’s first electoral test since becoming nation’s first female leader.

By Al Jazeera Staff and News Agencies

Japan’s Prime Minister ⁠Sanae Takaichi has ​said she ‍will dissolve parliament ‍on Friday ⁠and call a general election ​to ‌seek voter backing for her ‌spending ‌plans and ⁠other policies.

The snap election announcement on Monday comes just three months into her tenure as the nation’s first female prime minister. ……

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[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 30 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

isn't she far right?

What are the chances this opportunistic snap elections takes her out of power?

[–] Bullerfar@lemmy.world 43 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

She is just a trump of Japan. Yes.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 17 points 15 hours ago (2 children)
[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 8 points 14 hours ago

I don't think many countries have room to talk on that one.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

More or less than America?

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 11 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

In the past, more. Currently, less (but not less enough).

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago

thanks for the reply

[–] AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world -1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Check out what they did to China and Korea and for how long (first and second sino-Japanese wars). The Japan of the late 1800 and early 1900's were bloodyhungry imperialists. But they were a lot smaller and had a much smaller imperialist footprint than any western country by a country mile.

They started late and were actively thwarted by western nations to keep and exploit military conquests. Can't even compare them to the vast imperial footprint of the west.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

well... if we go far back enough in time, we can see crazy stuff like that from any country... we don't even have to go that far back to see crazy stuff like that from Murica in Afghanistan

I was asking more about the current population, maybe in the last 20 years at most

[–] AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

That's fair, this is gonna be long, this is a particularly interesting tpoic to me. Although Japan has been very much removed from the world through much of its history, isolated. Even pre-Sakoku the nation rarely showed an interest outside of the islands around it, and Korea a couple times. Japan is a fascinating country when you look at the education and militarism.

It's helpful to understand the Japan of the period around the world wars to understand Japan now. Japan had their arms forcibly removed from them after a period of extreme imperialism, which lasted from the period post the Sakoku policy beginning in the 1850's until the post ww2 period.

Japan went from a nearly pre-industrialized fuedal style system to a fully industrial nation with a modern military during the Meiji Restoration over a period of like 40 years. After the first Sino-Japanese war they attained an incredible amount of power, resources and reputation. What followed was a period of colonial effort with a sort of Japanese supremacy bent to it that was notable in it's cruelty and effectivness.

The last 20 years Japan has been re-militarizing. They started on the 1950s, but truly didn't start building real capacity until mid 2010's. Since 2022 they've been building a full military in earnest, to the point where China is treating them like the US is trying to treat other countries, not selling them the really good stuff for aggression and defense.

Much like the US, Japan doesn't exactly see itself as the bad guy in all of that, they teach that aggression had consequences, but the amount they omit about what Japan DID over there during from 1890-1940 is vast. They are still a resource poor country that relies on trade, but unlike the Japan of the past, the current Japan seems terrified of conflict, with a youth who seem unwilling to die for the country.

But again, even at the heights of their aggression and colonialism, they were a drop in the bucket compared to the West (including the US), or China, or Russia (in all it's forms). It's not even a comparison to the US, the US is still and has not stopped being bloodhungry imperialists.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 12 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Japan already realizes they made a huge mistake with her.

[–] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 9 hours ago

I hope so but there are so many people who like her anti China plans that could work to keep her in place

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 27 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

And Japan following Trumps lead.

[–] CowsLookLikeMaps@sh.itjust.works 12 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

Why? I know little about Japanese internal politics.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 23 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (3 children)

Takaichi is very right wing, against immigration, you know, the usual conservative bullshit. Meanwhile the population is collapsing and their GDP with it.

[–] taiyang@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

The immigration part isn't new, but her economic stance... she has said Margret Thatcher is an inspiration. It's just that bad. Her views on gender are also quite backwards, which is ironic given she's the first female Japanese PM.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 14 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Takaichi is very right wing, against immigration

Japan has been anti-immigration for the last 300 years. Rural towns have an average age of 80.

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Japan was even against international trade (besides with China and the Dutch in one city) for the same amount of time until America forced them to open up.

[–] ag10n@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago

Japan was not completely isolated under the sakoku policy, but strict regulations were applied to commerce and foreign relations by the shogunate and by certain feudal domains (han)

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-worldhistory/chapter/27-2-2-isolationism-in-the-edo-period/

[–] icelimit@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 hours ago

Japan and korea have both always been very anti immigration. They've famously taken in zero (or next to it) asylum seekers as well.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago

Japan loves facism

[–] U7826391786239@lemmy.zip 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

i think japan will do what america says until anyone else could or would protect them from china

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 6 points 15 hours ago

This has nothing to do with the US, it just rhymes with current US politics.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

You just got elected, dummy.

And this shit almost never works the way they want.

[–] 1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi@piefed.zip 9 points 9 hours ago

Every Japanese Prime Minister get a surge in popularity every though they are from the same party of the last PM who resigned due to low poll numbers.

I think she is trying to use her current popularity to gain more seats in the parliament, I am not sure whether that will work out but she probably did the math.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 8 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Neat. This is exactly what Japan needs, another conquest loving emperor. /s

[–] qualium@hilariouschaos.com 0 points 11 hours ago (2 children)
[–] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 9 hours ago

Probably because they weren't going to vote for war on China. Or push all spending to military for saber rattling

[–] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 3 points 11 hours ago

Right wingers doing right wing things. Agree with me, or I get rid of you and find somebody who will.