Japan’s First Female PM Expected To Favor Militarization And Tighten Immigration Policy

Japan’s First Female PM Expected To Favor Militarization And Tighten Immigration Policy

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Takaichi openly admires and compares herself to former British PM Margaret Thatcher

Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher

Sanae Takaichi of the Liberal Democratic Party became Japan’s first female prime minister with a discourse advocating a liberal economy and criticizing immigrants, at a time when the country is seeing its population age and face serious population decline.

This historic achievement is overshadowed by uncertainty regarding the future of Japan’s political stability, which is mired in an internal crisis, partly due to public debt of around $9 trillion — the largest among major global economies, corresponding to more than double the country’s GDP, which ended 2024 at $4 trillion.

Among the main factors that led to indebtedness are public spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, aid to struggling farmers, subsidies to help the population cope with inflation, and increased defense spending under the pretext of containing alleged Chinese aggression.

Furthermore, the share of the pension system in the budget has increased amid the island country’s largest population decline in its history, driven by an aging people. According to official government data, in 2024 Japan recorded 686,061 births—the lowest number since records began in 1899—compared with 1.6 million deaths in the same period.

Takaichi, who openly admires and compares herself to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, comes from the same ideological faction as former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in a shooting in 2022. This faction is more conservative, which means greater resistance to the entry of immigrants and a preference for the militarization of the country. Remember that Japan, since World War II, has revoked its right to initiate wars against any country, so it can only defend itself.

There is a rise in ultraconservatism in Japan, and the expectation is that Takaichi’s administration will increase resistance to social and multicultural reforms and alter the current policy granting immigrants the right to remain in the country for three months without a visa. Many Japanese were disturbed by the very recent large influx of immigrants in just a matter of a few years, which has led to a rapid rise in crime, particularly by Pakistanis and Turks.

Takaichi, to be elected, formed an alliance with the Japan Innovation Party, which advocates a liberal economy, free markets, and free trade. Takaichi leans towards conservatism on security and militarization, so she found a middle ground, and the Japan Innovation Party joined the government on the condition that the new government also adopt their economic agenda.

What the election of Takaichi highlights is that militarization has never ceased being an internal issue in Japan, because the Japanese population itself has difficulty accepting the idea that their country is not a major military power. For example, the Far Right within Japan is very powerful and influential. The Far Right, including Takaichi, denies war crimes perpetrated by Japan during World War II and has the ideology of ethnic supremacy. Takaichi is known for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where Japanese war criminals, such as Hideki Tojo and several generals convicted at Nuremberg in the aftermath of World War II, are memorialized.

At the same time, the economic crisis affecting Japan today is still the same one that erupted in the early 1990s with the bursting of the speculative financial bubble. However, the tariff war initiated by United States President Donald Trump has worsened this scenario. As a result, Japan, which, despite the crisis, managed to maintain economic stability, has begun to deal with a problem it is not accustomed to: inflation.

Japan has spent the last 20 years in a situation of very low inflation, very near zero. On the one hand, it is good for ordinary Japanese people, who are most affected by inflation as it erodes their purchasing power. But, on the other hand, it is bad because it does not increase the value of the economy.

During the elections, Takaichi and her competitors sought to raise hot-button issues to mobilize an apathetic electorate. The most prominent issue at the time was criticism of immigrants, claiming that they were stealing jobs and spreading fake news, such as the claim that Chinese tourists were kicking people in the city of Nara, without any evidence whatsoever. This led to political mobilization among the Japanese electorate.

Regarding the militarization of Japan, advancing this agenda is a way to reactivate the Japanese military-industrial complex, turning it into a service-contracting sector to expand formal employment for state workers. Nonetheless, the need to justify increased military spending, which could boost Japanese heavy industry, or to direct capital to the technology sector to increase hiring and thus revitalize the Japanese economy, comes with the caveat of portraying China as an imminent threat. Whether Takaichi will fix the country’s economic issues remains to be seen, but what is certain is that Japan’s militarization, likely encouraged by Trump, will increase tensions in East Asia.


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Mia

the main threat to china is not this woman, nor is peter thiel. the main threat to china is the uyghurs, whom turkey is training in syria. i’m really curious how, when the consequences arise, russia will still be able to maintain good relations with china. i think that the seeds of brics’ doom were sown in kazan 2024 and that this weed will not be able to be uprooted, but the roots of this weed will destroy brics and create cracks between china and russia that will never be able to be repaired.

Last edited 19 days ago by Mia
Rajesh

uyghurs can’t destroy china.

Benedict Arnold

load if bollocks political smoke screens .china’s only ” communist ” as a staged act .it’s all fake marketing .that’s all .

Benedict Arnold

so you see from here we not only rule china ,but the world ,and nobody knows how we do it ” words to that effect anyway from the jesuit general which is a military order , they aren’t ecclesiastical, they aren’t the teachers of all of the little children’s of the world ,they are a military order of soldiers , from his then headquarters in paris pre the revolution .

Last edited 18 days ago by Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold

now you might know his hq is new york where catholic no doubt ,mandani is set to become elected and start the commune they wanted in paris before .
look in the 1970s top brass from the ussr were convening meeting s at berkely campus were the whole communist takeover of america was being implemented way back then through castro’s california .

Last edited 18 days ago by Benedict Arnold
SovietRus'

mia likes bucake (not the real name!) like the japanese amerikunts?

Rajesh

i think we should wait and see. the propaganda machine made it sound like georgia meloni was the second mussolini when she was elected, and look how that turned out. my point is that it may well be a ploy to make the conservative faction in japan feel as if they’ve won some kind of victory.

Benedict Arnold

yes look how the girl whose only education is a diploma from tech in multilingualism ,turned out.

Benedict Arnold

until people understand that really everything pivots on first greece demokratos taking egypt and then rome,republic and then rome being england and then from there north america canada australia new zealand and back in the day 80% of africa and all of india including pakistan , they will not understand .they just won’t .

Benedict Arnold

and of course actually comprehending that charles is king of israel fulfilling the prophecy that a direct descendant of king david will be king of jerusalem again.

Benedict Arnold

japan was under us occupation after ww2 they had to agree to disarm and not be allowed to be naughty again from pearl harbours business of entrapment imo , they were not free they were occupied like a toilet in use .

TRUMP28

exclude turkey from nato.
hamas, muslim brotherhood supporter and
enemy of israel,
radical islamist er(dog)an
has no place in nato.

turkey buys natural gas from russia more than all europe.

replace turkey🦃 with israel, japan and south africa.
it is time to establish nato 2.0 and reforming it.
thus nato will become a world power.

god bless trump!

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Benedict Arnold

duplicate comment detected .and btw i saw donald at the first rally where melania ,catholic , said the lord’s prayer and i saw trump looking like ,how stupid ,until he saw the lambs praying along then after that he brought out his bible prop .imo allegedly .

SovietRus'

high on drugs on? south africa? lmao maga amerikunt? hahahahaha

SovietRus'

excluding turkyie from nato will be exceptional…the only real army on it! lmao! hahahaha

Benedict Arnold

all rubbish rhetorical clap trap democratic delusional role playing . the us told the jaos to get ready to go to war against china and korea that’s all they gave them permission .

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Clint

i live in japan and it is indeed remilitarizing and banging the war drums against big bad china. its sickening to see. parasite politicians look on with envy all the big bucks the us mic brings to its political parasites and they want to replicate that here.

SovietRus'

“japan” is “country” condened to disappear from earth… no need to worry… a very old population… no fertility… 78 million inhabitants in 2090 (in un “middle fertility”) which is not the case of japan, that has low fertility… japan, like every amerikunts that like bucakes will disappear from earth… no need to worry about “countries” like japan, gay korea, taipei, etc…

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