You are right to worry about Japan’s economic health (“Has Japan Found Its Margaret Thatcher?,” Review & Outlook, Oct. 7). The country’s growth rate in recent years has averaged about 0.5%, and its debt-to-GDP ratio is the worst in the developed world at 235%. Companies have begun to focus on overseas markets and cut capacity at home owing to aging consumers, aging workers, and lagging incomes. Voter frustration with the cost of living likely fueled the Liberal Democratic Party’s recent electoral defeats.
You write that “Sanae Takaichi is a hawk on China but a muddle on economics.” But that overlooks how she sees her security policies as being intertwined with Japan’s economic and the LDP’s political needs.