Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae is an unlikely savior for her Liberal Democratic Party. As a national security hawk and a staunch traditionalist on social issues, she has been described as “one of the most conservative people in Japan’s conservative LDP.”
When she was elected as head of the party last fall—setting her up to become Japan’s first female premier—the LDP was in dire straits, struggling to move past a major corruption scandal that felled some of its top leaders and prompted an overhaul of its faction-based operating model. Many analysts understandably wondered if Takaichi was the right person to lead the LDP into the future.
Yet surprisingly, she is now on the cusp of leading her governing coalition to a major comeback at the ballot box. Polls show the LDP and its partners are likely to cruise to a landslide victory in snap elections this Sunday, and the LDP could even retake its outright majority of the 435 seats up for grabs in the lower house of parliament, where it currently holds 198.
AloJapan.com