, Columnist
Can Japan’s Leader Beat the Heat With a Snap Election?
Takaichi’s political honeymoon won’t last forever.
Photographer: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reportedly hates the summer. “It’s a state secret,” Koichi Hagiuda, a senior figure in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, joked last week — adding that she particularly hates summer elections.
That’s understandable, given the incessant public addresses they demand, in a country where summers are oppressively humid, stiflingly hot and longer than ever. That’s why she might be trying to beat the heat by dissolving parliament this month and calling a snap election in the early weeks of February, as a flurry of media reports say she intends to.