Japan’s new conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolved the lower house of parliament on Friday, paving the way for a snap election on February 8.
Takaichi has been riding high in opinion polls and is looking to increase the wafer-thin majority held by her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner, the neo-liberal Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), in the National Diet.
The 64-year-old was elected as Japan’s first female prime minister at the end of October.
Her decision to call early elections is not without risk and it remains to be seen whether her personal popularity will rub off on the LDP.
The party, which has been in government almost continuously since 1955, recently lost its majorities in both houses of the Diet.
The LDP hopes to win back conservative voters who have turned to the far-right minor party Sanseito (Party of Do It Yourself).
The largest opposition party, former prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, has announced it will join forces with Komeito in a new centrist reform party that sees itself as a liberal alternative to Takaichi’s conservative coalition.
Komeito served as a coalition partner for the LDP for 26 years but withdrew its support in October in response to Takaichi’s hard line on party financing and security policy. The LDP had previously benefited from electoral agreements with Komeito.