Snap judgement: Japan PM’s electoral landslide

Summary of Snap judgement: Japan PM’s electoral landslide

by The Economist

23m•February 9, 2026
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Overview of The Intelligence — Snap judgement: Japan PM’s electoral landslide

This episode of The Economist’s The Intelligence (host Rosie Bloor) covers three main stories: Sanae Takaichi’s landslide snap-election victory in Japan and its political consequences; the growing wave of state-driven limits on university curricula and free speech in the U.S. (with a focus on Texas A&M); and a cultural reflection on Taxi Driver at its 50th anniversary and why the film still resonates. Each segment explains the background, immediate effects, and longer-term implications.

Japan’s snap election and Takaichi’s landslide

  • Context

    • Sanae Takaichi called a snap lower‑house election and won an historic triumph for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
    • The LDP gained more than 100 seats, holding 316 seats on its own in the 465‑seat chamber; with coalition partners it controls over 350 seats—a supermajority.

  • Why she won

    • Takaichi’s personal popularity and media appeal translated into “coattails” that pulled the party forward.
    • Her image: Japan’s first female prime minister, middle‑class background, plainspoken style, TV and social‑media savvy, energetic campaign (slogan: “work, work, work…”).
    • She presented as a contrast to the LDP’s recent image of instability and scandal.

  • Opposition collapse

    • The mainstream centre‑left opposition (a recently formed centrist alliance described as a muddled merger of established parties) lost many seats—more than half in some counts.
    • Small left‑wing parties also lost support; voters appeared to favor stronger, decisive leadership amid global turbulence.
    • A few upstart parties made gains but not enough to challenge the LDP’s dominance.

  • Policy directions and risks

    • Takaichi is likely to accelerate policies on two fronts:
      • Security: higher defence spending, bolstering Japan’s armed forces and defence industry, enabling arms exports and building modern intelligence capabilities.
      • Economy: an expansionary but “responsible” fiscal stance—big spending to spur growth while attempting to reassure markets amid rising inflation and interest rates.
    • Main question: can she move quickly (the “open road” metaphor) while maintaining market confidence and policy coherence?

  • Implications

    • With few internal or parliamentary checks, Takaichi has latitude to reshape Japan’s security and economic policies.
    • The opposition’s weakness could reshape party politics for years and reduce institutional pushback on controversial reforms.

Free speech, curriculum control and the campus culture wars (U.S.)

  • Trigger case: Texas A&M

    • A philosophy professor’s original syllabus included Plato’s Symposium; administrators asked to remove it (or reassign him) amid a review of ~200 courses said to contain “prohibited content.”
    • The request was linked to new Texas laws restricting teaching on gender/sexuality and limiting DEI instruction.

  • Broader legal/political trend

    • State legislatures—primarily Republican—have enacted laws and policies limiting what public universities may teach and curbing faculty autonomy.
    • PEN America report: lawmakers in 32 states filed 93 bills last year targeting higher education; 21 passed, affecting over half of U.S. college students.
    • FIRE data: the balance of campus speech suppression has flipped—from mostly left‑wing attempts in 2020 to ~80% coming from the right more recently.

  • Effects on campuses

    • Faculty at large public universities (e.g., University of Texas at Austin) preemptively altered syllabi; some classes or programs have been canceled or gutted.
    • Texas A&M reportedly eliminated its women and gender studies program after the reporting.
    • Students’ groups face extra hurdles for speakers and must use disclaimers distancing their views from the university.

  • Political and legal pushback

    • Some conservatives who favor reforms warn of overreach; courts have blocked extreme measures (e.g., a Texas law banning on‑campus expressive activity at night was struck down).
    • Scholars, faculty and some reform advocates worry academic freedom is under real threat in red states.

  • Personal and institutional choices

    • Faculty face decisions: comply and modify teaching, self‑censor, move institutions, or resist (with potential personal/professional costs).
    • Example: the affected philosophy professor will skip Plato but replace the unit with a focused discussion on free speech.

Taxi Driver at 50 — why the film still matters

  • Core argument

    • Andrew Miller argues Taxi Driver (1976) remains relevant not as a portrait of 1970s New York but as a window into Travis Bickle’s disturbed perception—his loneliness, rage, and delusions.

  • Key observations

    • The film’s New York is more a projection of Travis’s psyche than a documentary of the city’s realities.
    • Travis is an alienated Vietnam veteran whose misogyny, racism and affinity for violence map onto modern phenomena (e.g., online radicalization / incel culture and the manosphere).
    • Violence is Travis’s route to attention and meaning; the film’s climactic shooting spree reveals him as psychotic, yet within the story he’s misread by society and turned into a “hero” by the press.

  • Cultural afterlife

    • The film’s most quoted line (“You talking to me?”) is often appropriated as macho bravado, missing the line’s original context as a hallucinatory self‑address.
    • Miller suggests posterity has sometimes admired the film’s protagonist instead of treating the story as a warning; the film’s true genre may be closer to horror.

Notable quotes and moments

  • On Takaichi’s appeal: her campaign slogan and persona distilled to “work, work, work, work, work” — emphasizing action and energy.
  • On academic responsibility: the philosophy professor — “If I can’t speak, who can?” — illustrating faculty sense of duty to defend academic freedom.
  • From the Taxi Driver analysis: the idea that the film’s “hero” is actually a psychotic loner whose violence is misrecognized by society.

Key takeaways

  • Japan: Sanae Takaichi’s decisive victory gives the LDP a rare supermajority and a strong personal mandate for faster, bolder security and economic reforms—but those moves carry fiscal and political risks.
  • U.S. higher education: state-level legislation and administrative compliance are reshaping curricula and constraining academic freedom in multiple states, prompting legal challenges, internal adaptation, and chilling effects on teaching and campus life.
  • Culture: Taxi Driver’s power endures because it probes alienation and violent fantasy; our reception of the film says as much about contemporary audiences as about 1970s New York.

Further implications to watch

  • Japan: whether Takaichi can manage markets’ concerns while expanding spending; the pace and substance of defence reforms; the opposition’s recovery or realignment.
  • U.S. campuses: court rulings and federal responses, institutional strategies to protect academic freedom, and the long‑term effects on scholarship and student experience.
  • Culture/society: continued examination of how art that depicts violent outsiders is interpreted—or glamorized—by later audiences.