Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi¡¯s impressive victory in this month¡¯s general election signifies a pivotal moment in the maturation of the Japanese state ¡ª a mandate to shed what Chinese scholars Zhang Yong and Meng Fanchao describe as the postwar a psychological and legal framework that has long paralyzed Japan¡¯s ability to act as a sovereign equal in the international arena.
Yet her mandate comes at a moment of profound geopolitical fragility. Often mischaracterized by detractors as a radical nationalist, Takaichi represents a center-right continuity of the ¡°Abe line,¡± a pragmatic strategy aimed not at militarism, but at normalization.
Takaichi¡¯s foreign-policy team finds itself wedged between a revisionist China, whose values and interests are fundamentally incompatible with Tokyo¡¯s, and a United States under President Donald Trump¡¯s second term that has devolved into an unpredictable and transactional partner.
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