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Takaichi is shaping up as Japan’s Thatcher amid China feud. Can her popularity last?
The prime minister has defied the odds by winning back LDP voters with sweeping immigration, economic policies and a tough stance on Beijing
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Japan is no stranger to political volatility, often characterised by a rapid turnover of prime ministers, and when Sanae Takaichi took office in October, many had believed her premiership would not last long.
But more than two months later, Takaichi has proved the sceptics wrong and even managed to bring back voters who abandoned the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party and rallied behind far-right groups like the anti-immigrant Sanseito party in the July election.
The LDP under then prime minister Shigeru Ishiba suffered a stinging defeat in that election, forcing him to resign and the party to cobble together a shaky coalition to remain in power.
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Takaichi’s tougher immigration policies, sweeping economic promises and a hardline stance on China have helped the ultraconservative leader to keep the government steady, analysts say.
“There is already evidence of a coalescing of support around Takaichi and that she is going to be a conservative icon,” Michael Cucek, a professor of Asian Studies at the Tokyo campus of Temple University, said.
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“She is on course to be the [Margaret] Thatcher that she always wanted to be, a leader that she deeply admires,” he told This Week in Asia.
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