Japan’s first female leader, Sanae Takaichi, is facing her first diplomatic test: a meeting with US President Donald Trump. How will the conservative hardliner navigate Japan’s economic crisis, unstable political scene and global tensions?

In this episode: 

• Jeffrey J. Hall, (@mrjeffu), Lecturer at Kanda University

Episode credits: 

This episode was produced by Marcos Bartolomé, Haleema Shah and Melanie Marich, with Amy Walters, Farhan Rafid, Fatima Shafiq, Tamara Khandaker and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Noor Wazwaz and Sarí el-Khalili. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad Al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is the Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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