Japanese stocks surged on Monday after investors reacted enthusiastically to Sanae Takaichi's landslide election victory, a result widely interpreted as a signal that the prime minister now has greater room to press ahead with her preferred expansionary fiscal policies. Financial markets had already been leaning toward a Liberal Democratic Party win ever since Ms Takaichi's unexpected decision in January to call an election. Even so, the scale of the rally suggested that traders saw the outcome as more than routine continuity and closer to a clear mandate for accelerating her economic programme. The benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped almost 4% to a record high, while the broader Topix advanced by more than 2%. Ms Takaichi is generally regarded as favourable for corporate Japan, largely because of her consistent support for low interest rates and assertive public spending aimed at sustaining growth. Last year, she oversaw the passage of a record supplementary budget and has since promoted sizable state-backed investment plans to foster so-called national champions in strategic industries, including artificial intelligence and semiconductor production. What market participants have begun to call the "Takaichi Trade" amounts, in essence, to a wager on rising share prices alongside a softer yen — a combination that tends to aid exporters by improving the overseas competitiveness of Japanese goods.
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