Japan PM skews right
Last week Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi won a landslide election that she hopes will allow her to move her nation’s policies hard right. The victory will further boost her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as it looks to capitalize on a two-thirds supermajority in the lower house, the more powerful of Japan’s two parliamentary chambers.
Her goals include an increase in military power, more government spending, and strengthened conservative social policies.
Having two-thirds control of the 465-seat lower house allows Takaichi’s party to dominate top posts in house committees and push through bills rejected by the upper house, the chamber where the LDP-led ruling coalition lacks a majority.
Takaichi wants to bolster Japan’s military capability and arms sales, tighten immigration policies, push male-only imperial succession rules, and preserve a criticized tradition that pressures women into abandoning their surnames.
Rising prices
Her ambition to revise the US-drafted postwar pacifist constitution might have to wait, for now, as she is facing pressure to deal with rising prices, a declining population, and worries about military security.
Experts caution that her liberal fiscal policy could drive up prices and delay progress on trimming Japan’s huge national debt.
Defense spending
Japan is also under pressure to increase annual defense spending.
Takaichi in November suggested possible Japanese action if China makes a military move against Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own. That has led to Beijing’s diplomatic and economic reprisals.
Many Japanese, frustrated by China’s growing assertiveness, welcomed her comments on Taiwan.
Takaichi has pledged to revise security and defense policies by December to bolster Japan’s military capabilities, lifting a ban on lethal weapons exports and moving further away from postwar pacifist principles.
Japan is also considering the development of a nuclear-powered submarine to increase offensive capabilities.
Takaichi wants to improve intelligence-gathering and establish a national agency to work more closely with ally Washington and defense partners like Australia and Britain.
