The Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, won the early general elections to the Lower House of Parliament and managed to more than expand the narrow majority of her coalition, the public television channel NHK estimated shortly after the closing of the polling stations.
The conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won between 274 and 328 seats of the 465 up for grabs in the Lower House, the most important of the two that make up Parliament, NHK said based on exit polls carried out during the day.
Takaichi would thus alone surpass the absolute majority of 233 seats that he set as his goal. Its ally, the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin), would obtain, according to NHK, between 28 and 38 seats, so between them they would exceed the mark of 300 deputies.
The big loser of the electoral event seems to be the new Centrist Reformist Alliance, a union of the Constitutional Democratic Party (PDC) and the Buddhist Komeito (former coalition partner of the LDP but which abandoned its alliance after the election of Takaichi as leader). Between them they would only achieve between 27 and 91 seats, much less than what they held before the early elections.
Other Japanese media, such as the Kyodo or Jiji Press news agencies, also consider Takaichi the winner.