Takaichi Sanae’s Liberal Democratic Party turning the wobbly coalition she inherited back in October as Japan’s first woman prime minister into a landslide win in snap elections that gives the 64-year old admirer of late British maverick prime minister Margaret Thatcher enough leeway to reform the constitution and break with eight decades of pacifism. 

In a nation whose population is in decline, we will ask why young Gen-Z voters broke for the anti-immigrant, China-bashing nationalist and whether flag-waving is the way to go: cue the conservative sweep in Thailand this past weekend. There, it is border tensions with Cambodia that upended the script. 

And then there is what Takaichi does with her endorsement by the same Donald Trump who is preparing a Spring visit to China and a United States whose military presence remains vital for both Japan and South Korea, Washington which is of two minds when it comes to defending Taiwan and keeping the peace in the Pacific. How volatile could it get?

 

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Rochelle Ferguson.