2026 Japanese general election

2026 Japanese general election
← 2024
8 February 2026 (2026-02-08)
All 465 seats in the House of Representatives
233 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
 
Leader Sanae Takaichi Yoshihiko Noda
Tetsuo Saito 		Hirofumi Yoshimura
Fumitake Fujita
Party LDP Centrist Reform Ishin
Last election 191 seats 172 seats[a] 38 seats
Current seats 196 171 34
Seats needed Increase37 Increase62 Increase199
 
Leader Yuichiro Tamaki Tarō Yamamoto Tomoko Tamura
Party DPP Reiwa JCP
Last election 28 seats 9 seats 8 seats
Current seats 27 8 8
Seats needed Increase206 Increase225 Increase225
 
Leader Sohei Kamiya Naoki Hyakuta
Party Sanseitō CPJ
Last election 3 seats 3 seats
Current seats 2 1
Seats needed Increase231 Increase232
Incumbent Prime Minister

Sanae Takaichi
LDP



General elections are scheduled to be held in Japan on 8 February 2026 to elect all 465 seats of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet.[1] Voting will take place in all constituencies, including proportional blocks, to elect all 465 members of the House of Representatives.[2]

The election will be held four months into Sanae Takaichi's tenure as Prime Minister of Japan, which began on 21 October after she won the 2025 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election and formed the Liberal Democratic Party–Japan Innovation Party coalition.

Background

Premiership of Shigeru Ishiba

The 2024 Japanese general election and 2025 Japanese House of Councillors election both resulted in the loss of majorities for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito governing coalition under Prime Minister Ishiba.[3][4] After both elections, Ishiba invoked a parliamentary plurality in both houses, and believed the LDP had a responsibility to lead the government, as it would in most other parliamentary democracies.[5] Pressure continued to mount on Ishiba to resign as the LDP president, but he refused and said he planned to continue serving as Prime Minister.[6]

On 7 September, Ishiba announced that he would resign as president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.[7][8][9] Ishiba stated he sought to claim "responsibility" as party leader for losses in recent elections, and to avoid dividing the party.[10] Ishiba's announcement effectively cancelled the emergency election process entirely. He instead instructed Moriyama, whose resignation had not been accepted by Ishiba, to begin the process to hold an extraordinary presidential election.[11] Ishiba said he determined now was the "appropriate time" to step aside, after a written version of the Japan–U.S. tariff agreement had been finalized.[12] Ishiba promised to continue serving as Prime Minister until a new leader was elected, and did not endorse a candidate in the subsequent election. His tenure lasted about one year.[13] In the LDP leadership election on 5 October, Takaichi was elected as the LDP's first woman president. In her first acts as party president, Takaichi appointed Tarō Asō as vice president and Shun'ichi Suzuki as secretary-general of the LDP.[14]

LDP–JIP coalition formation in premiership of Sanae Takaichi

See also: Liberal Democratic Party–Japan Innovation Party coalition

On 10 October, Komeito chief representative Tetsuo Saito announced that it would leave the ruling coalition, over disagreements with Takaichi's leadership and the party's handling of the 2023–2024 Japanese slush fund scandal, ending 26 years of the LDP–Komeito coalition.[15] Following this, the vote to confirm Takaichi as prime minister was delayed to 20 October.[15]On 20 October, Takaichi and the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin) leader Hirofumi Yoshimura agreed to sign a confidence and supply agreement. Takaichi was elected prime minister by the Diet on 21 October, with the support of Ishin and independents.[16]

Reports of a general election

The press conference where Takaichi announced her intention to hold an early general election.

On 13 January 2026, it emerged that Takaichi had communicated her intention to dissolve the House of Representatives when it re-convened on 23 January to senior LDP officials.[17][18][19][20] Subsequently, the LDP instructed its prefectural chapters to register general election candidates by 19 January.[21] Japanese national broadcaster NHK reported that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications had instructed prefectural election boards to prepare for a general election.[22]

Takaichi is reportedly considering 27 January as the start of campaigning with 8 February as the date for the election.[23] In response to an apparently leaked LDP projection of the results of an election, LDP officials said that "260 seats seems like too much in reality", and that "within the party, it's assumed that at least a single majority of 233 seats will be won".[24] On 19 January, Takaichi officially announced her intention to dissolve the House of Representatives on 23 January to a press conference.[25]

CDP–Komeito merge

Main article: Centrist Reform Alliance

In response to the reports of an imminent election, the CDP considered forming a new political alliance with opposition parties to run a single proportional representation list against the LDP, potentially including Komeito, who previously had a 26-year alliance with the governing LDP.[26] The CDP also instructed its prefectural chapters to meet with Komeito's local organisations, and Diet members to seek electoral cooperation.[27] On 14 January, it was found that the cooperation between the CDP and Komeito had begun with view to a merger of the two parties.[28] The merged party would caucus separately in the House of Councillors, but operate as a single party in the House of Representatives, with current CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda and Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito serving as co-leaders.[29] The merged party's proposed name was Chūdō Kaikaku (中道改革; Centrist Reform),[30][31] before its official name was finalised as Chūdō Kaikaku Rengō (中道改革連合; lit. Centrist Reform Alliance).[32] Saito said that Noda would be named prime minister if the Centrist Reform Alliance won the election.[33]

Komeito also announced it would not contest any constituency seats in favour of running in the proportional blocks.[34] Jiji Press created a model of the constituency seats which projected that the LDP would win 97 constituency seats and the CDP would win 139 with the results of the 2024 election.[35] Nippon Television projected that, with a hypothetical CDP–Komeito merger, the LDP would retain just 60 of its 132 single member districts with the 2024 election.[36]

Electoral system

The 465 seats of the House of Representatives are contested via parallel voting. Of these, 289 members are elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting, while 176 members are elected in 11 multi-member constituencies via party list proportional representation. Candidates from parties with legal political party-list, which requires either ≥5 Diet members or ≥1 Diet member and ≥2% of the nationwide vote in one tier of a recent national election, are allowed to stand in a constituency and be present on the party list. If they lose their constituency vote, they may still be elected in the proportionally allocated seats; however, if such a dual candidate wins less than 10% of the vote in their majoritarian constituency, they are also disqualified as a proportional candidate.[37]

Political parties

See also: List of political parties in Japan
Parties Leader(s) Ideology Seats Status
Last election Current
Liberal Democratic Party Sanae Takaichi Conservatism
Japanese nationalism
191 / 465
196 / 465
 Governing party
Centrist Reform Alliance Yoshihiko Noda
Tetsuo Saito 		Centrism
148 / 465
[b]
172 / 465
 Opposition
24 / 465
[c]
Japan Innovation Party Hirofumi Yoshimura
Fumitake Fujita 		Conservatism
Right-wing populism
38 / 465
34 / 465
 Confidence and supply
Democratic Party For the People Yuichiro Tamaki Conservatism
28 / 465
27 / 465
 Opposition
Reiwa Shinsengumi Tarō Yamamoto Progressivism
Left-wing populism
9 / 465
9 / 465
Japanese Communist Party Tomoko Tamura Communism
8 / 465
8 / 465
Sanseitō Sohei Kamiya Right-wing populism
Ultraconservatism
3 / 465
3 / 465
Conservative Party of Japan Naoki Hyakuta Right-wing populism
Ultranationalism
3 / 465
1 / 465
Social Democratic Party Mizuho Fukushima Social democracy
1 / 465
0 / 465
Independents and others N/a N/a
12 / 465
15 / 465
 Mixed[d]

Campaign

Takaichi announced her intention to call a general election on 19 January, planning to dissolve the House of Representatives on 23 January. This set the campaign period as taking place from 27 January until election day on 8 February.[25] Ishin said that there would not be electoral cooperation with the LDP, with Yoshimura saying Ishin "should just fight the election".[38] The reports of an election prompted both Yoshimura (the governor of Osaka Prefecture) and Hideyuki Yokoyama (mayor of Osaka) to resign from their posts with the aim of running for re-election alongside the general election, as well as to seek endorsement of the Osaka Metropolis Plan.[39] Sanseitō leader Sohei Kamiya said that the party plans to field candidates in LDP constituencies where the incumbent has "advocated multicultural coexistence".[40]

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2026 Japanese general election
LOESS curve of the party identification polling for the next Japanese general election with a 7-day average

Notes

  1. ^ Separately as CDP and Komeito
  2. ^ Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan
  3. ^ Komeito
  4. ^ Of the 15 independents, four are in government through caucusing with the LDP, while eleven are in the opposition (four in Yūshi no Kai, three in Genzei Nippon, and four not in any caucus).

References

  1. ^ Kihara, Tamiyuki; Takemoto, Yoshifumi; Geddie, John (14 January 2026). "Japan PM readies snap election, February 8 ballot eyed". Tokyo: Reuters. Archived from the original on 14 January 2026. Retrieved 14 January 2026.
  2. ^ "選挙の種類". 総務省.
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  40. ^ 慎平, 奥原 (14 January 2026). "参政・神谷氏、多文化共生掲げる自民議員には「候補者たてる」 目標は「30～40」議席" [Councillor Kamiya: "We will field candidates" for LDP lawmakers who advocate multicultural coexistence, aiming for "30-40" seats]. 産経新聞：産経ニュース (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 14 January 2026. Retrieved 14 January 2026.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Japanese_general_election