Japan PM Takaichi's 1st year in power marked by adventurism, predicaments

TOKYO, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi marked one year in office Wednesday, having pressed ahead with a right-wing agenda centered on military buildup and constitutional revision while making little progress on economic and livelihood issues. A series of scandals and growing public discontent have also cast a shadow over her administration.

Analysts said Takaichi's approval ratings have begun to lose momentum amid mounting challenges, warning that her political future would become increasingly uncertain unless she reverses misguided policies and responds to people's concerns.

ACCELERATED MILITARY BUILDUP

A prominent figure in Japan's right-wing political camp, Takaichi has long advocated a hard-line foreign and security policy. Since taking office, her administration has significantly accelerated Japan's military expansion.

On the budgetary and policy fronts, the Takaichi administration has brought forward by two years its target of raising defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product, revised the "three principles on transfer of defense equipment and technology" and their implementation guidelines to lift the ban on exports of lethal weapons, and pushed for a centralized intelligence system through the establishment of a national intelligence bureau.

The government also plans to revise by the end of this year, ahead of schedule, the country's three key security documents. Takaichi and senior officials in her administration have repeatedly floated proposals to revise Japan's Three Non-Nuclear Principles, introduce nuclear-powered submarines and even acquire nuclear weapons, testing public reaction to the controversial ideas.

In military deployment and industrial development, Japan under Takaichi has deployed long-range missiles capable of striking enemy bases for the first time. Her administration has also promoted the expansion of the defense industry as a driver of economic growth and technological innovation, while pursuing the development and introduction of additional long-range missiles, hypersonic weapons and "new ways of warfare" designed to ensure sustained combat capabilities, including through the large-scale deployment of unmanned equipment.

To rally public support for its right-wing agenda, the administration has repeatedly played up so-called threats from neighboring countries, with Takaichi going so far as to claim that a contingency involving China's Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan. Seeking external backing, the government has courted other countries, promoted bloc confrontation and frequently held military exercises, heightening regional tensions and drawing criticism and countermeasures from neighboring countries.

On historical issues, Takaichi has also taken steps that critics view as a revival of Japan's militarist legacy. She has sought to restore Japanese military ranks used in World War II for members of the Self-Defense Forces and repeatedly made ritual offerings to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors convicted Class-A war criminals, including performing a remote act of worship on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in WWII.

These moves have raised alarm among Japanese intellectuals and members of the public. Protests against the administration's military buildup have continued across Japan over the past year, while scholars and civic groups have repeatedly warned of the dangers posed by its defense policies and underlying historical views.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba criticized the Takaichi administration and right-wing forces for a lack of honesty in addressing the country's wartime history in a television program aired on Monday, saying such an attitude made it impossible to build solid diplomatic relations.

LIVELIHOOD CONCERNS LEFT UNRESOLVED

Takaichi has touted her economic policy as "responsible proactive fiscal policy," but it has yet to provide a meaningful boost to Japan's long-stagnant economy.

Although Japan's economy has expanded over the past year, growth has remained limited. Meanwhile, the fiscal 2026 budget prepared by the administration has reached a record high, rising substantially from the previous fiscal year, with planned government bond issuance also increasing markedly.

Market confidence in Japan's fiscal position has weakened further, pushing government bond yields sharply higher. The yen has continued to depreciate, while domestic prices have kept rising, leaving the Bank of Japan caught between maintaining low interest rates to support economic activity and raising rates to curb inflation and shore up the currency.

High prices have weighed heavily on Japanese households in recent years. Takaichi pledged upon taking office to make tackling inflation a priority, but the problem has shown little sign of easing after a year. A recent Bank of Japan survey found that more than 95 percent of respondents believed prices had risen from a year earlier, while nearly 90 percent expected prices to continue increasing over the coming year.

Japan has also been hit by frequent natural disasters over the past year. Although Takaichi stressed the importance of disaster prevention and relief early in her tenure, her administration has faced criticism for its handling of actual emergencies. Some commentators have argued that Japan's response to the Kumamoto earthquake this year showed no improvement over its response to the 2016 disaster. Takaichi and senior officials also drew widespread criticism for staged publicity during post-earthquake visits and for offering prayers aboard helicopters.

Izuru Makihara, a professor at the University of Tokyo, said the Takaichi administration had prioritized military expansion over people's livelihoods. The substantial increase in defense spending has squeezed funding for social security, education and welfare, with the resulting burden inevitably affecting people's lives, he said.

POLITICAL DECLINE BEGINS TO EMERGE

Takaichi has cultivated an image as a hard-line conservative and has effectively used online platforms and social media to mobilize support among conservative voters. Buoyed by high approval ratings, she dissolved the lower house early this year and called a snap election, in which the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won more than two-thirds of the seats on its own, dramatically reversing the ruling coalition's previous minority position in both houses of parliament.

The electoral victory, however, appears to have reinforced an increasingly unilateral and overconfident governing style. Public discontent over the LDP's political funding scandals, commonly referred to as the "slush fund" scandals, has persisted, yet Takaichi has continued to appoint lawmakers implicated in the controversies to key positions in her cabinet and the LDP leadership despite public criticism.

Jiji Press recently quoted a senior LDP official as saying that power was concentrated in Takaichi's hands and that people around her "dare not say anything."

Her leadership style has already exacted a political toll. Among those appointed during a cabinet reshuffle in September was Agriculture Minister Kazuo Yana, a lawmaker implicated in the slush fund scandal. Less than a month after taking office, Yana came under intense criticism over a separate controversy regarding alleged remarks about local road budget cuts and ultimately resigned.

Takaichi initially sought to defend Yana after the budget scandal emerged, only distancing herself from him after the affair continued to escalate. The personnel scandal dealt a significant blow to both the prime minister and her administration.

With a limited record of achievements and controversies mounting, public support for Takaichi's cabinet has continued to decline. Recent polls released by several Japanese media outlets showed the ratings falling to new lows. Surveys by Kyodo News and other media organizations also indicated that the proportions of Takaichi's supporters who trusted her personally and viewed her economic policies favorably had fallen substantially from the early days of her tenure.

Meanwhile, a considerable number of her supporters fell into the category of "passive support" -- they only offer their backing because there is currently no better alternative, according to the polls.

Japanese newspaper Shimbun Akahata criticized the developments of Takaichi's first year in office as highly dangerous, arguing that peace, people's livelihoods and fiscal stability had suffered serious damage. Unless the administration corrects its policy course, which places military expansion and constitutional revision at the center of its agenda, contradictions between the government and the public will only intensify.