Sanae Takaichi's economic policies may not help Japan

In a country known for electing prime ministers who are mostly reticent on the global stage, Sanae Takaichi represents a distinct break from the past, and not only because she is the first woman prime minister in Japan's history.

- RAHUL JACOB

She was born in a conservative working class family that had initially resisted her desire to enrol in university. Happily, she did go to university and become a news presenter before she became a politician.

Perhaps because of that television career, Takaichi has a gift for dominating the news. In a campaign speech, she once complained about foreign tourists and criticized them for kicking deer in her hometown of Nara. Last week, urged by an opposition lawmaker to take back the statement lest it created a backlash against foreigners, she refused. “I cannot withdraw it,” she said. “It is a fact that such regrettable behaviour by foreigners has become more noticeable.”

On 7 November, she said that an attack by Beijing on Taiwan or a blockade of the island by China would require a military response from Japan. Inevitably, this has sparked an unseemly row between the two countries, with a senior Japanese official travelling to China this week to smooth things over.

Takaichi's surprise win in October of the PM nomination from the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan was a result of a campaign that seemed to promise almost all things to all people—lower taxes, higher government spending and fierce nationalism. Before she became premier, Takaichi often visited the Yasukuni shrine, which is viewed as revelling in Japan's militaristic past. If she does so now as PM, it would roil ties with countries such as China and Korea.