Japan supports to move to the right under the fan of ‘Iron Lady’ Takaichi

By choosing the former Minister of Economic Security as its leader, the Liberal Democratic Party is betting mainly on a right swing to attract young voters who have flocked to smaller populist outfits, including the Sanseeito party in Arch-Conservator.

This is a decision that could turn around if the party simply returns to easy money and the feet diplomacy of its mentor, the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, without any new idea.

Takaichi should become first later this month during a parliamentary vote. By becoming the LDP chief, Takaichi has already broken a glass ceiling in a nation that has only seen party leaders in male power.

Its ascent at the top of the political world will send undulations through society dominated by men who languishes near the lower end of the world classification of gender equality. But as Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister whom she quotes as an inspiration, her conservative opinions put her far from the position of progressive feminism.

His ability to build a lasting heritage as head of the country will depend less on his ability to continue the position of women than to his ability to restore the fortune of an in power in disarray after decades of domination in post-war Japan.

“From a normal woman’s point of view, she could call an idol for” old people, “said Mieko Nakabayashi, professor of politics at Waseda University. “It is someone who expresses the opinions of the” old man “of a woman’s mouth and makes them happy.”

Its longevity at the head of a flying political machine known for having quickly deleted its presidents will depend on the speed with which it can unite the party, reconquer public support and connect with these young voters. It will also have to establish a consensus with the opposition parties to adopt legislation in Parliament where the LDP no longer has a majority.

Find out more: the party that has governed Japan for decades is in danger of collapsing

Provided that she became Prime Minister as planned, one of his first tasks will be to build links with Donald Trump in the midst of information according to which the American president will stop in Japan at the end of October during a trip to Asia.

Takaichi was the most frank among the five candidates of the management race on the possibility of renegotiating parts of the Japan trade agreement with the United States. But she operated the line after her election on Saturday, saying that an immediate renegotiation was not on the table. She has always declared that Japan would make her opinions known on the appropriate roads if the agreement would not serve her interests.

But she said it could only happen if there are problems implementing the agreement in its current form, a comment that suggests that it is on board the agreement for the moment.

On issues such as improving Japan’s expenses and capacities, containing the growing influence of China and the construction of supply chains that align with American interests, it is probably a good match for Trump’s opinions. However, she probably has less name recognition among the American conservatives who met her rival in the leadership competition, Shinjiro Koizumi, and who remembers her father Junichiro carrying nuances of Elvis and former president George W. Bush two decades ago, former president George W. Bush.

“Takaichi has a vast experience as a politician, and as the hard position of the United States towards China is not part with her own opinions, she should be able to establish a good relationship with President Trump,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist of the Meiji Yasuda research institute.

For investors, the main concern will be its reputation for wanting expenses to reach growth and its penchant for the revival of the central bank for the economy goose. In the latest leadership campaign, she attenuated her scathing opinions on the interest increases of the Bank of Japan from last year, when she described her increase in rates as “stupid”. But in a recent Kyodo survey, she has always said that the Boj should leave interest rates unchanged for the moment. This commentary comes in the middle of expectations that the bank can increase the borrowing costs later this month.

His spending plans are less clear. All candidates had to release a set of economic measures to help consumers cope with inflation in the fall, but it was the most daring by saying that the issue of additional bonds may be necessary. In accordance with many in the LDP, it remains cautious about the idea of ​​opposition requests to reduce the sales tax, one of the most expensive options to deal with the cost of living crisis.

Instead, Takaichi has promised cash documents and tax discounts to help households. It also hinted at the increase in the tax allocation in tax franchise before the end of the year, a decision that would resonate well with the Democratic Party for the people, another populist party which made major breakthroughs in the past year or two.

While saying that her spending plans will be “responsible” and that she will ensure that the country’s net debt burden will fall in time, she said that “the objective is to achieve economic growth, not budgetary health”, in a sign of its expansionist expenditure trends.

“While it was still leaning against a reflationary position, the current economic environment has changed considerably and the reduction in inflation has become the mission of the country,” said Kodama de Meiji Yasuda. “Opposing the BOJ rate increases would be contradictory, so I don’t think it can make extreme declarations concerning monetary policy.”

However, the possible result for the markets when they open on Monday is a drop in Yen on the expectations of normalization of the slower central bank, an increase in actions on a lower currency and an increase in super long yields on the longer -term fears of spending plans.

Takaichi was born on March 3, 1961 and grew up in the former capital of Nara, a city known for the emergence of Buddhism in Japan. His father worked as a seller in a company manufacturing equipment while his mother worked for the Nara police forces. She studied business management at Kobe University.

As a student, she went up on a motorcycle and played battery in a group of Heavy Metal, and is counting as a fan of British groups of Lourds-Metaux Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, according to local media. She still picks up the sticks occasionally to hammer an electric drum at home, if she quarrels with her husband, she told a local diffuser in an interview. His essential song is Deep Purple’s “Burn”.

“To be honest, I would like to be able to go out for karaoke, but I have returned in recent years,” she said in this interview.

She studied at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, an organization focused on the production of leaders in the world of politics and industry.

She worked briefly as a presenter of news before winning her first elections in 1993 as an independent at a time when the LDP was in disarray following the breakup of the economic bubble of Japan. This election has seen a multitude of opposition parties unite their forces to form a patchwork administration and oust the LDP for the first time since its training. But as it did later, the LDP found a way to group and resume power, while most of the parties that ousted it disappeared.

During her years as a politician, including her time as Minister of Internal Affairs, promoter of “Cool Japan” and Minister of Economic Security, Takaichi aroused a reputation for studious with attention to the details. She is known to avoid socializing and drinking with her peers.

“If I’m going to get out of dinner or have a drink, I prefer to work a lot or study something new,” she said in a campaign speech last year, adding that she is often working on weekends.

Shortly after winning the LDP election, she doubled this message.

“I will abandon the expression” balance between professional and private life “, she said, provoking laughter of the rows of LDP legislators listening to his speech. “There are a mountain of things that we have to do together and I would like you to see you working as horses.”

As a Progress Darling and Abe, China can be wary of the way it sails in a relationship that has been tense in recent years.

Previously, Takaichi had not chosen his words when asked if she would visit the Yasukuni sanctuary, who honors the dead of the Japan war, including those who were charged as war criminals after the Second World War. The visits to the preceding prime ministers have angry the neighboring countries and turned out to be a flash point for Japan and China.

“Once the penalty is exercised, they are no longer criminals,” she said on a live television program last week. She attenuated her messages after being elected on Saturday, saying that she would make appropriate decisions on prayer to the sanctuary.

She opened her campaign speech with a reproach to foreign tourists in Nara, saying that she had heard of tourists kicking the deer who wander freely in local parks.

This hideout seemed to draw on wider anxieties felt by the public as the number of visitors and workers born abroad increases in the middle of a drop in the own population of Japan. With Sanseito who gains ground during the elections by capturing such concerns under a “Japanese first” message, Takaichi could be the conservative icon that the LDP thinks that it must reconquer the right -wing voters. Among the five candidates, she has always ranked the most popular in recent opinion polls among the general public.

In a touch of irony for the first woman Prime Minister of Japan, her conservatism may not have a good omen for gender equality problems.

It opposes homosexual marriage or allowing spouses to have separate family names, claiming that this could undermine family unity. The novelist Kyoko Nakajima once called Takaichi “an honorary man” for having maintained opinions in accordance with a traditional society centered on men, Japan Times reported in 2021.

And while his appointment breaks a glass ceiling, he may also become a glass cliff.

“Women leaders often receive a certain latitude so as not to do things in the” traditional “way,” said Nakabayashi of Waseda, who was skeptical that the Takaichi elections represent a new era for women in Japan. “This is why this is often the case that women only get management positions when things become really difficult.”