Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has put her leadership at stake in calling a snap election only three months into her tenure in the hopes that the electorate will have faith in her ability to deliver on ambitious policy proposals.
In doing so, she turned her own persona into the central point of contention in the upcoming vote ¡ª arguably acting more presidentially than any of her predecessors.
By namechecking the leaders of other opposition parties ¡ª Yoshihiko Noda and Tetsuo Saito, the two co-leaders of the newly formed Centrist Reform Alliance ¡ª Takaichi made the upcoming Lower House election a contest of leaders.
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