Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader on Saturday (October 4), putting her on course to emulate her hero, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to become the country’s first woman premier.
The conservative Takaichi, 64, came out on top in an internal party vote, beating the centrist Shinjiro Koizumi in a runoff election at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo. The lower house of Japan’s Parliament is expected to choose her as prime minister in a leadership vote in mid-October.
Takaichi is set to replace incumbent Shigeru Ishiba less than a year after the latter entered office last year. Ishiba had announced his intent to resign last month, amid mounting pressure from within the LDP, which has lost its majority in both houses of the parliament, known as the Diet.
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‘Japan is back!’
Takaichi’s win represents a victory for the right in the LDP, and a departure from the politics of the moderate Ishiba. For a party in crisis, this is being seen as a much needed pivot.
As Takaichi herself alluded to in her victory speech on Saturday, “Recently, I have heard harsh voices from across the country saying we don’t know what the LDP stands for anymore or do you really understand how hard life is, and that the LDP’s policies show no vision.”
Takaichi definitely has a vision, although where that vision will take her — and Japan — remains to be seen. A protege of former PM Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, her politics combines her ultranationalism with an aggressive fiscal stance, a departure from her party’s usual position.
Her campaign slogan, “Japan is back!”, captures the essence of her politics. “I am determined to always put national interests first and lead the country with a sense of balance. Let us make the Japanese archipelago strong and prosperous, and pass it on to the next generation,” she said on Saturday.
Unabashed ultranationalist
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Postwar politics in Japan was defined by pacifism borne out of its experiences in World War II. This was also a state policy, with Article 9 of Japan’s constitution essentially rejecting the state’s right to wage war.
It reads: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes…land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognised.”
In the last two decades, amid an economic stagnation and a population crisis, ultranationalist, some would say revanchist, currents have gained currency in the country. Instead of being ashamed of the actions of Imperial Japan, many have embraced it, and sought to recast modern Japan in the image of the old one.
Abe, who served as prime minister for nearly nine years, from 2012 to 2020, represented the rise of Japanese nationalism. Takaichi seeks to take this legacy forward.
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Among other things, she shares Abe’s revisionist view of Japanese crimes during World War II. Takaichi is a member of the Nippon Kaigi, Japan’s largest ultranationalist lobbying group which aims to “change the postwar national consciousness” and to revise Japan’s current Constitution, specifically Article 9.
She is also a frequent visitor to the Yasukuni shrine, which honours Japan’s war dead — including executed war criminals — and is viewed by some Asian neighbours, notably China and Korea, which bore the brunt of Japanese war crimes, a symbol of its past militarism. Takaichi has notably said that Japan need not apologise further for its war crimes.
Like Abe, Takaichi’s premiership is expected to not go down well in the neighbourhood, especially amid China’s increasing belligerence. A long time China hawk, Takaichi seeks to form a military alliance with Taiwan and bolster Japan’s domestic capacities to better guarantee its security.
Socially conservative, fiscally aggressive
Socially, Takaichi is an ultra-conservative who fails to key litmus tests for politicians in Japan, when it comes to gender issues.
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One, she opposes allowing married couples to use separate surnames — a move that has long been popular with voters but one she claims will “undermine traditional family values”. Two, she is against allowing members of the imperial family’s maternal line to ascend the throne. She also opposes same-sex marriage.
This is why many voters, particularly women, do not view Takaichi’s elevation as progress.
“Takaichi has made no reference at all to the hardships women face or to gender disparities during the leadership contest,” Yayo Okano, a professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto who specialises in feminism and political theory told The Washington Post. “In that sense, I fear this signals a very harsh situation for women, because it effectively rules out any prospect of real improvement in Japan’s gender inequality going forward.”
Fiscally, however, Takaichi borrows from Abe’s playbook, advocating for aggressive public spending and cheap borrowing to stimulate Japan’s stagnant economy. She has repeatedly criticised the Bank of Japan’s rate hikes. Her position is a sharp break with the entrenched LDP caution over deficits embodied by intraparty rival Shinjiro Koizumi.
With Reuters inputs
AloJapan.com