Voters air adulation, anger at PM Takaichi as Japan election officially starts

TOKYO – Voters on Jan 27 expressed adulation and anger toward Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi as she delivered her first stump speech in Tokyo to kick off official campaigning for a Feb 8 general election.

Mr Kiyoshi Sekiguchi, 81, said he has voted for Ms Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the past, but that the Prime Minister’s address to a packed morning crowd in Tokyo’s Akihabara neighbourhood was his first time seeing a politician speak live. “The LDP before was no good, but with Takaichi it’s different,” he said.

A national security hawk, Ms Takaichi called the snap election amid high poll ratings for her months-old government. She is aiming to increase her ruling coalition’s razor-thin majority in the powerful House of Representatives, but the timing has drawn criticism for possibly delaying measures to support inflation-hit households.

Mr Sekiguchi, however, said it was “great timing” to call the election now. “She hasn’t time to waste. The good things about Japan could disappear if she delays,” he said, pointing to concerns over national security and a need for measures to respond to voter concerns over a rising foreign population.

Ms Mei Togawa, a 19-year-old planning to vote for the first time in the election, said Ms Takaichi’s status as the first female prime minister in Japan’s typically male-dominated political world had appealed to her.

“I have the impression she is doing a lot more than her predecessors, so I wanted to come and hear her speak,” the student said.

But others came out to express opposition to the election’s timing, held in February for the first time since 1990. One 57-year-old LDP supporter who declined to provide his name said he “cannot see the meaning” behind the dissolution. KYODO NEWS