Japan’s historic new leader

Sanae Takaichi made history last fall when she became the first female prime minister in the history of Japan. Her professional mentors have included the late, powerful former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Last month’s general election reconfirmed her Liberal Democratic Party in power with a sweeping landslide victory, winning 316 of the 465 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Diet, the nation’s parliament.

Last year included agreement with the United States that Japan will provide $550 million in new investment. Prime Minister Takaichi generally reflects the current Trump administration in emphasizing an assertive foreign policy, while maintaining Japan’s approach of emphasizing the now firmly established alliance with Washington.

Today, Japan with the U.S. boasts one of the largest and most advanced economies in the world, and is a leader in support of international organizations. The nation in recent years has been an active participant in international security cooperation. While China, North Korea and Russia often feature in the news thanks to threats and turbulence, Japan maintains a calmer course of sustained stability and expanding international involvement and leadership.

Since the end of the regional and global commercial surge of Japan three decades ago, national economic problems have often seemed to dominate domestic debate, and attention from abroad. The problem of persistent economic sluggishness, the inability to reenergize the powerful engines of rapid growth, has preoccupied both policymakers and business leaders.

Japan, like the United States, possesses a long-established advanced economy, with enduring physical and human infrastructure providing stable support. Japan remains the second largest highly advanced and developed economy in the world, after the U.S., though China is rising fast.

Abroad, Japan since 2016 has promoted the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) involving collaboration among the maritime democracies of the region. Australia, India and the U.S. are supportive, despite complications during the Biden administration

Frustration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and more general withdrawal of the U.S. from diplomatic leadership in the Pacific, has provided an opportunity for Japan to fill the void. In January 2017, President Donald Trump publicly issued a memorandum withdrawing the nation’s signature from the TPP. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nominee, also became critical of the ambitious free trade initiative.

In September 2019, Japan and the U.S. concluded an important trade promotion agreement. The lengthy negotiations strengthened cooperation.

Japan’s neighbors are challenging. Sustained military buildup in China receives continuing global attention and concern, along with the wider regional arms race, and ongoing maritime disputes. North Korea’s often-wild rhetoric, combined with nuclear weapons development, add further international frictions.

In the nineteenth century, as rapid industrial development began, Japan’s leaders viewed Great Britain as the example to emulate. Both are maritime nations, each close to a continent containing difficult rivals.

British leaders have had significant positive impact. Thomas Glover, for example, over decades in Japan nurtured industrial development. After World War I, Japan was attracted to alliance with Germany, with disastrous results.

Today, free markets, and global trade and investment, encourage stability and the rule of law. Fortunately, Japan’s leadership in this often vexing but manageable environment is promising.

The complex challenges of our time require mature, informed foreign policies. Prime Minister Takaichi can build on the lengthy, overall successful record of predecessors, including Abe.

The strong Japan-U.S. relationship can be a foundation for economic and security regional cooperation in the Pacific.

• Arthur I. Cyr, acyr@carthage.edu, a retired professor of political economy at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a former vice president of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and author of “After the Cold War— American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia.”