TURNING POPULARITY INTO A LONG-LASTING ADMINISTRATION
But to enact meaningful change, she needs to turn her popularity into a long-lasting administration, of the kind overseen by her mentor, the late Shinzo Abe.
The prospect of that has jolted what was a relatively sleepy start to the year in Japanese markets. The Takaichi Trade has been resurgent, with the Nikkei 225 rising to yet another record, bonds continuing their selloff and the weakening yen once again flirting with touching 160 to the dollar. Investors are betting on the prospect that a stronger position would enable Takaichi’s free-spending instincts.
A win could restore the LDP’s majority in the lower house, lost in 2024 under her predecessor Shigeru Ishiba. That would lessen the need to cooperate with stubborn opposition parties and secure her position within the LDP itself. Many lawmakers lost their posts under Ishiba, and gaining their support – as well as proving herself as an election winner – is the best way to ward off internal rivals and keep hold of the top office.
Her support among younger voters, increasingly influential as ever-more political discussion takes place online, is almost unheard of.
They have recently taken to Sana-katsu, buying up items that Takaichi herself favours, such as her handbag or preferred brand of pen. Among the under-30s, she enjoys an unprecedented 92 per cent approval rating, according to a FNN poll last month.
The contrast with the main opposition party, whose leader Yoshihiko Noda once likened himself to a bottom-feeding fish, couldn’t be more stark: Even with the LDP in crisis last year, his party failed to pick up a single seat in July’s upper house election.
Source: CNA
