Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hopes for big win as polls open in national elections

TOKYO (AP) — Polls opened Sunday in parliamentary elections that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hopes will give her struggling party a big enough win to push through an ambitious conservative political agenda. **media[77646]** Takaichi is hugely popular, but the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for most of the last seven decades, is not. She called Sunday\'s snap elections hoping to turn that around. She wants to make progress on a right-wing agenda that aims to boost Japan\'s economy and military capabilities as tensions grow with China. She also nurtures ties with her crucial U.S. ally, and a sometimes unpredictable President Donald Trump. The ultraconservative Takaichi, who took office as Japan\'s first female leader in October, pledged to "work, work, work," and her style, which is seen as both playful and tough, has resonated with younger fans. The latest surveys indicated a landslide win in the lower house for the LDP. The opposition, despite the formation of a new centrist alliance and a rising far-right, is seen as too splintered to be a real challenger. Takaichi is betting that her LDP party, together with its new partner, the Japan Innovation Party, will secure a majority in the 465-seat lower house, the more powerful...