The recent victory of Japan’s Sanae Takaichi is a boon for the U.S.-Japanese relationship. Takaichi and her Liberal Democratic Party won a mandate in the snap elections. And Washington might have won the opportunity to work with a key ally in deterring China and its global ambitions.
Takaichi’s win is notable. Her LDP gained 120 seats, for a total of 316, more than two-thirds of the lower house. Combined with its partner, Ishin no kai (Japan’s Innovation Party), the LDP coalition now has 352 of 465 seats, a supermajority. The numbers are resounding, and Takaichi’s decision to gamble and call for elections looks to be a masterstroke. Indeed, the LDP’s landslide is the party’s largest in the postwar period.
But the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story.
Takaichi and her LDP campaigned as defense hawks, willing to break with recent Japanese history and embrace the need to rearm and have a more proactive national security strategy. Takaichi has called for a “quasi security alliance” among like-minded democracies in the Indo-Pacific. The prime minister is both cognizant of the dangers posed by a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and, as importantly, willing to speak out against Beijing’s expansionist ambitions.
In November 2025, Takaichi warned that a Chinese Communist Party seizure of Taiwan would constitute nothing less than an “existential crisis” for Japan. China’s “wolf warrior” diplomats decried her remarks, and various CCP propaganda outlets went into overdrive to force her to apologize. But Takaichi didn’t buckle, holding fast to her convictions.
Takaichi’s resolve, and her unapologetically pro-America stance, have won her a friend in the White House. President Donald Trump endorsed Takaichi before the election, signaling a notable break with the tradition of American leaders not wading into Japanese politics. The president might be hoping to rekindle the magic that he had with Shinzo Abe, the president of the LDP and Japan’s longest-serving prime minister.
Abe, who was later assassinated in 2022, was a transformative figure in Japanese politics. He worked steadfastly to get his country to embrace a more forward-leaning defense; more independent but also better positioned for a rising and rapidly rearming China.
As prime minister during Trump’s first term, Abe got along famously with the mercurial U.S. leader. The two worked almost in tandem, shoring up and strengthening U.S.-Japan ties. As with any bilateral relationship, let alone one as complicated as that which exists between Washington and Tokyo, there were ups and downs. But Abe proved uniquely capable at navigating storms. Both countries are safer and more prosperous as a result.
The word “statesman” is seldom uttered in politics today — and for good reason. Statesmen seem to be a dying breed. But Abe was an exception to the rule.
Takaichi stands as Abe’s ideological successor, uniquely positioned to build off the relationship that her mentor helped cement.
For its part, Beijing is displeased. CCP propaganda outlets are clearly distressed at Takaichi’s victory, labeling her a “militarist” and “warmonger.” This, of course, is projection. It is also a sign that the results of the snap election are worrisome to China. That alone is a fact worth celebrating.
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America’s defense posture in the Indo-Pacific is precarious. China has been engaged in the largest military buildup in modern history, hardening bases, rebuilding World War II-era runways, testing its rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, and purging those generals who dare question Xi’s rule. Meanwhile, for years, American defense spending as a share of GDP has been sitting far below Cold War-era levels.
The U.S. needs strong and capable partners where it can get them, and it most certainly needs them in Japan, arguably the key ally in the region. Together, Trump and Takaichi might prove that lightning does, in fact, strike twice. And they just might deter a looming war in the Pacific.
