Economic ideas for Takaichi Sanae

Japanese prime ministers tend to be gray, unimpressive placeholders who don’t last very long in office. But every once in a while, an important leader shows up who gets big things done and stays in office for a while — Koizumi Junichiro in the 2000s and Abe Shinzo in the 2010s were the two most recent examples. It’s not always easy to tell who is going to be one of these when they come into office — Abe himself even had a short, unimpressive first term in the 2000s before he came back in 2012 and changed Japan utterly. There’s a lot of hope that Takaichi Sanae, who just became prime minister, will be one of the transformative ones. She’s modern Japan’s first female leader, which may have contributed to her very high popularity, especially among young people. She’s also a tough-minded conservative, famous for her hawkish views on defense and on China.1 And in a party known for gray leaders who blend into the background, she stands out as a colorful individual, with her history as a bike

Japanese prime ministers tend to be gray, unimpressive placeholders who don’t last very long in office. But every once in a while, an important leader shows up who gets big things done and stays in office for a while — Koizumi Junichiro in the 2000s and Abe Shinzo in the 2010s were the two most recent examples. It’s not always easy to tell who is going to be one of these when they come into office — Abe himself even had a short, unimpressive first term in the 2000s before he came back in 2012 and changed Japan utterly. There’s a lot of hope that Takaichi Sanae, who just became prime minister,