People across Japan braved snow to vote in the country’s first mid-winter poll in 36 years.

Japan’s transport ministry said 37 train lines and 58 ferry routes were closed and 54 flights cancelled as of Sunday morning. There was rare snowfall in Tokyo as people headed out to vote.

“People want their lives to be better and more comfortable because we are so accustomed to not having inflation [costs rising]… so people are very worried. I think we need a long-term solution rather than short-term fixes,” Ritsuko Ninomiya, a voter in Tokyo, told the BBC.

Takaichi’s enthusiasm, populist spending promises and nationalist rhetoric appear to have energised voters.

Her social media presence has also cultivated new followers, particularly among young voters. She regularly shares clips of her daily life and political activities, and a video of her playing the drums with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is one of many clips to have gone viral.

Takaichi and the LDP faced a more unified opposition than before. LDP’s former coalition partner Komeito has joined forces with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan to form the largest opposition bloc in the lower house.

Takaichi has pushed to toughen the immigration system, review rules around foreign ownership of Japanese land, and tackle any non-payments of tax and health insurance by foreign nationals.

But in a country where only 3% of the population are foreign nationals, critics have accused her of creating anxiety and division.

Relations with China – Japan’s largest trading partner – have been strained as well, after Takaichi suggested last November that Japan could intervene militarily if China invaded Taiwan.

With a two-thirds majority, Takaichi would be a strong position to considering her long-held aim of changing Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Takaichi has courted Donald Trump, who has publicly endorsed her – an unusual move by a US president – and they both seem to agree that Japan should spend more on defence.

That relationship too was on voters’ minds as they headed to the polls on Sunday.

“I am concerned with what President Trump is doing as well as the national defence issues. I am not sure where the money is coming from to cover that. So balancing budget spending between defence and people’s life is a major concern for me,” Yuko Sakai says.

Opinion polls have frequently been wrong in Thailand, but there will be a lot of post-election analysis of how Anutin turned his once small, provincial Bhumjaithai – “Thai Pride”- party into a such formidable electoral machine.

Playing on patriotic sentiment after the two short border wars with Cambodia last year, Anutin’s party became the standard-bearer for conservatives, promising to defend the status of traditional Thai institutions like the monarchy and military.

He campaigned on hard-line nationalist sentiments and populist giveaways – but his victory was also down to his ability to win local power-brokers to his side, in an electoral system where 80% of seats were decided on a first-past-the-post basis.

The People’s Party did well in the proportional votes, where it appears to have got more votes than any other party. But it was unable to overcome its lack of networks at a local level.

The third main contender was the Shinawatra family and its Pheu Thai – “For Thais” – party, which is projected to win 86 seats.

In the past it dominated elections, with well-marketed populist policies. It had promised to create nine new millionaires – in Thai baht – every day through a national prize draw. Both Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai have offered subsidies and cash handouts to voters.

Pheu Thai was expected to lose significant support in this election after its last coalition administration was accused of mishandling the conflict with Cambodia, and its patriarch, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, was sent to jail.