Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reportedly hates the summer. “It’s a state secret,” Koichi Hagiuda, a senior figure in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, joked last week — adding that she particularly hates summer elections.

That’s understandable, given the incessant public addresses they demand, in a country where summers are oppressively humid, stiflingly hot and longer than ever. That’s why she might be trying to beat the heat by dissolving parliament this month. Numerous local media reports indicate the prime minister will formally call the election at the opening of parliament on Jan. 23 with the vote taking place on Feb. 8 or possibly a week later.

The timing makes sense, and not just for the temperature. After three months in office, her polling numbers remain off the charts. A JNN survey this weekend showed her enjoying 78% approval. She passed her extra budget last month, filled with handouts for households battling inflation and has enacted a publicly popular cut to gasoline taxes. And just when some of the chief concerns around her position were her inexperience and the hint of radicalizm she carries, Beijing’s campaign against her, for comments on the potential for Japan to be dragged into a theoretical Chinese invasion of Taiwan, makes her look positively reasonable and stateswomanlike.