(Adnkronos) – A “stronger, more prosperous” Japan, with a turning point in economic and security policies, is the promise reiterated by Sanae Takaichi, the first female prime minister of the Land of the Rising Sun, a staunch conservative, considered a hawk when it comes to security and diplomacy, in her first policy speech since her confirmation in Parliament after her triumph in the snap elections on February 8 and in view of her announced visit to the United States next month. With Donald Trump, who considers her a “strong, powerful and wise leader,” she said she wants to “further strengthen relations of trust.”
Takaichi, who wants to be Japan’s Iron Lady, assured that she will promote “responsible and proactive” fiscal policies and measures to encourage investment. “My government will end the long practice of excessive fiscal austerity and insufficient investment for the future,” she stated. “We will push intensely, we will push, push and push the growth switch,” she said in statements relayed by the Kyodo agency, promising a “virtuous cycle of domestic investment and wage increases.” She assured that she wants to promote a “robust economic policy and a strong foreign and security policy,” echoes the Asahi Shimbun.
Takaichi rose to power at the end of last year, after winning the race for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party, following Shigeru Ishiba’s resignation. Becoming Japan’s first female prime minister, she called for snap elections to consolidate the ruling coalition’s mandate. And in the vote, the coalition (LDP and ‘Ishin’) won more than two-thirds of the 465 seats in the Lower House of Tokyo’s Parliament. In the Upper House, the bloc remains in the minority. Takaichi said she hopes to work with opposition parties.
To prevent “unjustifiable interference from abroad,” Kyodo further reports, she announced the creation of a ministerial-level committee and the transformation of the Intelligence and Research Office into a national agency. She spoke of “responsible diplomacy” that “creates peace and prosperity.”
After months of tensions with China, triggered by her November statements on Taiwan, Takaichi reiterated her commitment to “constructive and stable” relations and willingness for dialogue, but also insisted on “national interests” and spoke of Japan’s “most serious and complex” security situation in decades, denouncing China’s attempts to “unilaterally change the status quo by force and coercion” in the East and South China Seas. And without forgetting North Korea and Russia.
And she also returned to insist on a public debate for constitutional amendments and to speak of an “orderly coexistence society with foreigners.”
