TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is on course for a big election win, according to polls, propelled by a section of the electorate that political leaders worldwide struggle to reach: young people.
Takaichi and her ruling coalition are set to snap up dozens of extra seats in a national vote Sunday, according to surveys of voting intentions, a projected victory that reflects the 64-year-old’s personal popularity with voters who see her as an antidote to a male-dominated and sometimes stuffy political class.
Takaichi is striking a chord with younger voters in particular, who say they respect her outsider status and straight-talking, decisive style. One late January poll found 84% of respondents in their 20s and 78% of those in their 30s backed the prime minister and her cabinet, compared with 67% of voters overall.
She is adept at appealing to younger voters on social media, turning usually dry diplomatic summits into viral hits: She played along to K-pop hits on matching drum sets with South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung and snapped selfies with Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister.
On policy, she has appealed directly to younger voters’ wallets with cuts to gasoline taxes and pledges to boost take-home pay through tax changes, especially for young families on lower incomes.
“She seems like a capable and dependable person. I feel she could be the one to change Japan,” said Kaede Suzuki, a 32-year-old mother of three children, ages 10, 8 and 5. “I think she’s popular because she’s different from what it’s been like before.”
An emphatic victory for Takaichi and her Liberal Democratic Party would cement her grip on power and embolden her to pursue her vision of revitalizing Japan’s economy and raising stagnant incomes with aggressive fiscal spending.
A security hawk, she favors stronger ties with the U.S. and a beefed-up military as a counterweight in Asia to the growing assertiveness of China.
In her frenetic first three months in office, Takaichi has already locked horns with Beijing over comments she made about Taiwan, which led to a Chinese squeeze on critical minerals needed in manufacturing and other economic reprisals.
Rather than hurt her electoral chances, her tough stance toward Beijing has if anything enhanced her popularity, including among younger voters turned off by traditional politicians’ cautious stance on China and other contentious issues.
“There aren’t that many people who speak their minds so clearly in Japanese politics,” said Yuta Takahashi, 28, as he waited for the prime minister at an election rally in Saitama, north of Tokyo.
A conservative who tried twice before to win the leadership of the LDP, Takaichi’s 30-year pursuit of high office from humble beginnings contrasts with the privileged background of most successful Japanese politicians.
Her main challenger for the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party was Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former Prime Minister Junchiro Koizumi. Her political mentor, the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was the third member of his family to serve as prime minister.
As the country’s first female leader, many voters, especially women, are willing her to succeed, said Tobias Harris, founder of consulting firm Japan Foresight.
“People are inspired by what she overcame to get here,” Harris said. “I think they are just responding to the fact that she is a different kind of leader. She seems like she is going to get stuff done.”
Takaichi is a self-proclaimed workaholic who vowed to “work, work, work, work” for the Japanese people when she took office in October. In a diplomatic trial by fire she hosted President Trump in Tokyo only days later, widely seen in Japan as a huge success.
Takaichi has shown a lighter side that has contributed to her appeal, too. Her account on X, formerly Twitter, mixes messages about high-level diplomacy with the occasional musing on outfit choices and remarks about cooking dinner.
Some projections suggest that Takaichi might lead the LDP to an outright majority in the more-powerful lower house of Japan’s parliament, a feat that has eluded the party for more than a decade.
Still, in Japan and elsewhere, younger voters don’t tend to vote in the same numbers as their older counterparts. That could give opposition parties an edge in tight races in the 465 seats up for grabs this weekend.
Another potential wrinkle is that some young people say they like Takaichi but are less enthusiastic about the LDP, which has governed Japan for most of its postwar history.
Write to Junko Fukutome at junko.fukutome@wsj.com and Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com