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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Japan Gets New Kind of Leader

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Newly-elected Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Sanae Takaichi celebrates after winning the LDP leadership election on October 4, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. (Getty Images)
Caption
Newly elected Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader Sanae Takaichi celebrates after winning the LDP leadership election on October 4, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. (Getty Images)

Something important just happened in Japan. Usually, the leaders of Japan’s long-dominant party look for conformity and continuity when selecting prime ministers. This time they have done something different.

Sanae Takaichi, 64, is a former heavy-metal drummer and the first woman to lead Japan’s ruling party. She is a hawkish nationalist politician who has frequently visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine where the spirits of Japan’s World War II dead, including war criminals, are enshrined. She invokes the ideas and the priorities of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. She wants to make Japan great again.

Read in The Wall Street Journal.