The parliamentary elections in Japan last February led the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to a record electoral victory, reinforcing the position of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who has been in office since October 2025. Along with her, the nationalist, and possibly revisionist, movement within her party. It is difficult to determine whether it is due to, or in spite of, this radicalism that the Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe’s heir, assassinated in July 2022, garnered such significant support. But many signs suggest that a growing portion of the public perceives the international environment as concerning and thus voted for a stable government capable of taking action.
If Sanae Takaichi succeeds in making a real shift in Japan’s foreign policy, it will probably be less due to her own convictions than because Japan currently finds itself in a more vulnerable situation than its predecessors. Will the recent visit to Washington by the Japanese prime minister, endorsed by Donald Trump, change the game in a highly tense international context?
Context: This passage discusses the recent parliamentary elections in Japan, highlighting the nationalist and revisionist tendencies within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) due to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s victory.
Fact Check: Shinzō Abe, a former Japanese Prime Minister, was not assassinated in July 2022, as stated in the article.
Under the US umbrella
The nearly endless post-war Japanese period may be coming to an end. For eighty years, Japan has pursued a discreet and often referred to as pacifist foreign and security policy under the shadow of the United States, which remained the guarantor of its security. This subordination, stemming from Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, has transformed into a quasi-existential dependency, even more pronounced than that seen in certain countries of the Atlantic Alliance.
The United States committed to protecting Japan in exchange for the establishment of a network of military bases in the Japanese archipelago. This alliance had a numbing effect on the population, but within the political class, it revealed itself to be a source of frustration.
Context: The passage discusses Japan’s historical reliance on the United States for security and how it has shaped the country’s foreign policy stance.
Fact Check: The text mentions the concept of reinterpreting Japan’s pacifist Constitution and the historical US-Japan alliance structure in defense matters.
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