Who says every political leader in the free world is unpopular? Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi defied that stereotype on Sunday by leading her Liberal Democratic Party to a sweeping victory in the lower house of Parliament.
Returns show the LDP on a path to win a comfortable majority on its own, which amounts to a landslide. The party had lost support in recent elections and needed a coalition partner to form a government. With her new coalition partners, Ms. Takaichi will have a two-thirds majority that will be able to overrule opposition in the weaker upper house.
The result is in part a personal victory for the 64-year-old Ms. Takaichi, Japan’s first female Prime Minister, who has a 67% approval rating that buoyed the rest of the party. It’s true she faced weak opposition, but her recent LDP predecessors weren’t able to capitalize as she now has.
Credit also goes to Beijing, which has tried to punish Japan with export and tourist bans after Ms. Takaichi told the truth by saying publicly that a Chinese takeover of Taiwan would threaten Japan’s security. Beijing’s bullying backfired again, as it previously has in Taiwan and Australia. President Xi Jinping could send his wolf-warrior diplomats to his infamous reeducation camps, except they were probably taking orders from him.
Ms. Takaichi comes out of the LDP’s conservative, pro-American wing. She favors more defense spending, which is urgently needed given China’s vast military buildup. So far she has managed President Trump’s unpredictable behavior as well as anyone can. She’ll try to stabilize trade ties, and Mr. Trump would be wise to make that happen instead of treating the country as a zero-sum trade adversary.
Less certain is whether her agenda will address the frustrations of the Japanese public on inflation. She has called for a two-year moratorium on Japan’s 8% consumption tax on food. But the roots of Japan’s inflation are monetary, as the Bank of Japan attempts to normalize its policy after years of negative interest rates.
Ms. Takaichi also campaigned on a new burst of government spending, a Keynesian remedy that has failed in Japan many times in the past. A non-defense spending burst is also riskier in the current environment of high global government debt. Investors may raise their asking price to finance Japan’s rising debt load.
Japan’s economic problem isn’t a lack of demand. It’s on the supply-side, in a dearth of animal spirits and domestic competition. Ms. Takaichi’s mentor, the late Shinzo Abe, pursued some deregulation that has helped growth, and that is the policy avenue the prime minister can best pursue.
The best news is that the clear LDP majority will give Ms. Takaichi running room to govern with a mandate. The U.S. and the free world need a strong and confident Japan as an ally against the Chinese Communist Party’s imperial ambitions.