Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was projected to have won a thumping victory in snap elections on Sunday, a result that could worry financial markets.
Capitalising on her honeymoon start as Japan's first woman premier, Takaichi's ruling bloc looked on course to have secured a two-thirds majority in the lower house, according to media estimates.
If confirmed, it would be the best result for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since elections in 2017 under Takaichi's mentor, assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
The LDP alone was seen winning about 300 of the 465 seats up for grabs, up from 198, and regaining a majority lost in 2024 — and potentially a super-majority on its own.
"We received backing for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's responsible, proactive fiscal policies and a strengthening of national defence capabilities," LDP secretary general Shunichi Suzuki told Japanese media.
The new Centrist Reform Alliance of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) and the LDP's previous partner Komeito looked to have lost more than two-thirds of its 167 seats.
The anti-immigration Sanseito party was projected to have increased its seats from two to between five and 14, broadcaster NHK said.
Takaichi has injected new life into the LDP, which has governed Japan almost non-stop for decades but which has shed support in recent elections because of unhappiness about rising prices and corruption.
