Japan’s stock market has hit a record high after Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) secured a comprehensive victory in Sunday’s election.
According to The Guardian, the LDP won 316 of the 465 seats in the country’s lower house, the first time a single party has secured two-thirds of the chamber since the establishment of Japan’s parliament in 1947.
The Japan Innovation party, the LDP’s coalition partner, won 36 further seats, giving a supermajority with 352 seats.
The landslide victory eases the legislative agenda for Takaichi, who is Japan’s first female prime minister and called a snap election in January, as she can override the upper chamber, which she does not control.
Japanese stocks rose, bonds fell and the battered yen recovered some ground on Monday, February 9, after the LDP’s win was seen as enabling decisive action on fiscal stimulus.
Japan’s Nikkei share average rose to a record high on Monday, after the election result, surpassing the 56,000 level for the first time at the start of trading. It quickly pushed through the 57,000-point mark, before closing up 3.9% at 56,363 points.
In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi rose 4.4%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.8%, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 1.9% higher.
Meanwhile, the yen initially fell 0.3% against the dollar, its weakest level in two weeks, before strengthening as much as 0.7%. It was last trading 0.5% firmer at 156.43 yen against the dollar.
Takaichi hopes to push through a 21tn yen (£99bn) stimulus package, and has promised to suspend Japan’s 8% sales tax on food for two years.
