Tokyo, February 9: Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Monday expressed her gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his congratulatory message following her coalition’s decisive victory in Sunday’s election to Japan’s lower house, the House of Representatives, while reaffirming Tokyo’s commitment to strengthening ties with India to advance a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP).
In a post on X, Prime Minister Takaichi, who led the ruling coalition headed by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to a two-thirds majority in the lower house, thanked Prime Minister Modi and underscored her intent to continue close cooperation with India.
“Thank you very much, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for your warm congratulations on the House of Representatives election. I look forward to continuing to work together with you to strengthen the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between Japan and India and to cooperate in realising a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP),” she said. Prime Minister Takaichi also expressed her gratitude to PM Modi in Hindi in the same post.
According to Kyodo News, the LDP secured 310 seats in the 465-member lower house, a mandate that allows the party to pursue constitutional revision and pass legislation even if it is rejected by the upper house, the House of Councillors. However, the ruling coalition remains in a minority in the upper house. The LDP has become the first party in postwar Japan to achieve such a margin in the lower house.
Following projections of the coalition’s decisive victory in Sunday’s snap elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended warm congratulations to Prime Minister Takaichi, emphasising that India–Japan ties remain vital for advancing global peace, stability, and shared prosperity through their robust Special Strategic and Global Partnership.
In a post on X, Prime Minister Modi congratulated Takaichi on her landmark electoral win and reaffirmed the importance of the partnership that outlines eight all-nation lines of effort for the next decade.
“Congratulations, Sanae Takaichi, on your landmark victory in the elections to the House of Representatives. Our Special Strategic and Global Partnership plays a vital role in enhancing global peace, stability and prosperity. I am confident that under your able leadership, we will continue to take the India–Japan friendship to greater heights,” PM Modi said.
India and Japan had laid out eight directions to steer their Special Strategic and Global Partnership over the next decade during PM Modi’s visit to Japan for the India–Japan Annual Summit on August 29, 2025. In their joint vision, the two sides reaffirmed a shared commitment to a free, open, peaceful, prosperous, and rules-based Indo-Pacific.
The landslide result marks a sharp increase from the LDP’s pre-election strength of 198 seats and was widely attributed to Prime Minister Takaichi’s personal popularity. The LDP and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), will together command a dominant presence in the chamber, reinforcing Takaichi’s position after she took office in October, becoming Japan’s first woman prime minister.
“We bear an extremely heavy responsibility to focus on steadily delivering on the campaign pledges we have made,” Takaichi said during a television programme after the victory was reported, as quoted by Kyodo News.
The election delivered a major setback to the newly formed Centrist Reform Alliance, whose seats were halved from 167 before the vote. Its co-leaders, Yoshihiko Noda and Tetsuo Saito, hinted at possible resignations following the defeat, Kyodo News reported.
Among smaller parties, the populist Sanseito, campaigning on a “Japanese First” platform, won 13 seats, up from two, while Team Mirai, which promotes digital technology to boost political participation, entered the lower house for the first time with nine seats, according to Kyodo News.
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