Editorial | Takaichi’s election mandate won’t give her leverage with China

Sanae Takaichi is not only Japan’s first female prime minister, but has secured an election victory of historic proportions, with unprecedented potential for constitutional revision. A landslide haul of 316 out of 465 seats in the lower house has handed her ruling Liberal Democratic Party the first two-thirds parliamentary supermajority for a single party since World War II. Its right-wing coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, gained a further 36 seats.

This has raised concerns that Takaichi may seek to change the country’s pacifist constitution. Beijing sees such an attempt as a threat to regional stability, to which it is likely to react strongly.

Beijing has voiced opposition to Japan’s military spending plans, with relations having plunged after Takaichi suggested that Japan could intervene in the event of a conflict over Taiwan – a remark she later categorised as hypothetical but did not retract.

This has prompted pressure from China, including restrictions on exports of dual-use items intended for Japan’s military, closer screening of rare earth exports, travel and study warnings for Chinese citizens and a suspension of Japanese seafood imports.