Reports of friction inside Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suggest Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s biggest political challenge may now lie not with the opposition, but within her own party. Despite her strong public standing after February’s general election, reports have grown louder that Takaichi is clashing with the LDP’s influential old guard, notably former prime minister Taro Aso. Japanese tabloids, which are often more willing than the mainstream press to air insider...
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is pursuing the first ever revision of her country’s post-World War II pacifist constitution, a step that observers say is likely to be welcomed in Washington and condemned in Beijing. Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) secured a historic two-thirds majority in the National Diet’s lower house in February’s election, passing the threshold needed to pass constitutional amendments without other parties’ support. “An independent constitutional amendment...