from breakfastmtn@piefed.ca to world@lemmy.world on 06 Feb 2026 04:33
https://piefed.ca/c/world/p/504271/sana-mania-grips-japan-as-ultra-conservative-takaichi-expected-to-secure-election-landslide
The country’s first female PM is the object of a personality cult revolving around everything from her outfits and snacks to her favourite pink pen
When the LDP’s conservative wing forced a leadership election to replace the embattled Ishiba in October last year, many expected his ally Shinjiro Koizumi – the young, telegenic son of a previous prime minister – to win.
Instead, Japan’s party of government for most of the past seven decades took a gamble on his ultra-conservative rival, Sanae Takaichi, installing her as the country’s first female prime minister. If opinion polls are correct, that gamble is about to pay off in ways even her strongest allies could not have imagined.
In an eventful four months, Takaichi has met Donald Trump – who this week offered an endorsement and an invitation to the White House in March – as well as Xi Jinping and South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung. She sparked an unresolved row with Beijing over the future of Taiwan, spooked bond markets with promises of sweeping tax cuts, and faced fresh scrutiny over her links with the disgraced Unification church.
Despite the ups and downs, she has emerged as the LDP’s most effective weapon, the object of a personality cult revolving around everything from her choice of outfits and train journey snacks to the pink pen she uses to take notes in parliament.
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Could someone who is more familiar with Japan’s politics explain what this means? Is a Japanese conservative at all like an American conservative?
Not familiar myself, but IIRC she has been quoted idolizing Margaret Thatcher, sooo…
From what I understand she’s also something of a fan of orangeboi
Yeah, and the 'stashy boi
I’m guessing she’s a fan of Emperor Hirohito, too
She’s absolutely not what Japan needed. Conservatives are less unhinged than their US counterparts but they wont do what’s needed for Japan to survive. Their aging population voted for this as they get unreasonably spooked by immigration when their country needed it the most (Japan’s immigration is already very low). They’ll gradually fall into corruption and irrelevance in the next few decades if they don’t wake up or worse if there’s a war.
Their demographics are crashing, young people are not having kids, or waiting until far later in life, and her solution, as far as I’ve heard, is “bitch you gotta max that grindset, 100h weeks are for closers”. Which is just leaning further into the already insane work culture of Japan.
They’re going to kill themselves, MMW what remains of their young will try to move to other countries and they’ll be over. It’s just sad.
Average weekly hours worked: Japan 30.98, USA 36.08.
Whoa, stop posting facts and let Lemmy’s usual bashing of Japan’s work culture continue.
There’s probably some truth to that but I imagine in Japan, it’s not so much the work but them having to stay in the office regardless if they have work or not. It still destroys the work/life balance for them.
You don’t know Japan.
Young voters absolutely love Sanae: archive.ph/IooOg
I never said they don’t, with time they’ll realise they f’ed themselves.
It’s possible for both things to be true isn’t it?
Your source mentions that she is popular with young people but that her party is not popular with young people. It also mentions that young people don’t have a high voter turnout. With Japans aging population and the information in your link, that could still mean that she is popular with young people but the net effect from young voters is still tiny. I couldn’t find any good sources for actually breaking down the demographics of her popularity though.
Also, why do a hit on run on someone trying to answer a question, and not take a shot at the question itself, or let people know why you didn’t try to answer the question?
The earlier comment made it out to seem like it was just the older people who voted for her. Saying that young ones vote for her too is a good correction
Agreed. Depending on what portion of turn out though, I’m just not sure it necessarily fits behind the lead “you don’t know Japan”. And with that lead, it seemed like there was more to say about what Japan is actually like.
That said, they’re likely Japanese with far better English skills than I have in Japanese and I’m possibly being overly harsh
Young voters in Japan are less informed than young voters in literally every other developed country.
Part of the problem is that some of the LDP’s base thought they weren’t conservative enough and started voting for other parties, so the LDP decided to appeal to them. Of course, this is just short-term thinking to maintain power at all costs and is gonna fuck the country in the long-run unless they get their act together.
The majority of the Seats are FPTP, so it’s a common trend to chase the crazies.
I think we need to blame voters less and systems more, all non-proportional system have a rightwards shift built in.
In theory this could work leftwardly but as these countries tend to depend heavily on capitalist media to tell voters who is capable of winning in their district, the leftward shift is usually described as unrealistic & impossible, whereas the right shift is usually exaggerated and considered a real threat to the center-right/center-left.
You see the same effect in the UK, US, Russia (when they had elections), etc.
Whereas Ireland, Scandanvia, tend to have stable liberal-to-progressive governments rather than flip between a center-left & center-right establishment party that is constantly chasing far right voters.
I think the best system to counteract this is STV (used in Ireland) as it:
Developed countries that don’t have FPTP show no evidence of better governance than countries that have it.
Like term limits, it’s an obvious solution that doesn’t actually solve anything.
If you want to clean up politics, get the money out of it and limit propaganda.
Countries with FPTP tend to be more divided and more right wing.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/…/00104140241237458
…org.uk/…/proportional-representation-stands-in-t…
That’s much easier to do in a country where the political establishment isn’t so entrenched. Getting money out of politics is impossible when both parties are bought. And Look at the UK if you want to see how thoroughly the media can capture a FPTP system.
At the very least those that benefit most from Money & propoganda are the right wing who are least likely to curtail it’s influence and benefit the most from FPTP
More immigration strictness. Things like same-sex marriage and changes or abolishment of the koseki system are dead. Possibly revising the constitution to have real military again and remove or change the defense only clause. Harder lives for the non-wealthy. More corruption and interference with the moonies (allegedly). More stirring shit and nationalism
Ah, also rolling back some labor reforms. For people like me who voluntarily work two jobs (my own small company) it's not a bad thing on paper but I worry about other things.
God, this is so depressing. People are falling for the “girlboss” aesthetic while she is actively gutting progress. It is the same old LDP rot, just wrapped in a more marketable package. Seeing people obsess over her snacks and her pink pen while she opposes something as basic as women keeping their own surnames is honestly pathetic.
Being the first female PM does not mean anything if you are just a Thatcher clone who wants to keep the patriarchy on life support. The Trump endorsement and the Unification Church links should be disqualifying, but instead we get “Sana-mania.” It is just proof that if you are charismatic enough and have a good social media team, you can sell people the same old right-wing garbage and they will thank you for it. Japan deserves better than a personality cult built on a leather handbag.
I loved Japan when I visited but Jesus Christ they need to wake up and stop vibe voting.
Japan’s population only ever “vibe”-does anything
Ugh. I’m going to vote now but it kills me to think that my vote won’t really change anything to prevent this. At least I’ll bring my kids to show them how it all works.
Welcome to the fascist nazi party Japan.
I mean, it’s a vassal state (a main one too, completely dominated) of the American empire so whatever the Burgers go through I expect Japan to go through as well, at least until America reaches the next step in their empire’s uhh restructuring. Racism, ideological and moral corruption, plus their very recent imperial history makes this all possible, IMO. Oh well, eventually they’ll learn and find some North to their society, God willing.
I dunno why you’re getting down voted. As an Okinawan, I mostly agree with your point.
Man everytime you post you just get dumber and dumber
That’s a matter of perspective, I feel.
I guess I thought it would be longer before I saw openly vapid, grifitng, right-wing, cult of personality in the office of prime minister of Japan. SMH. I give it less than two years before reasonable Japanese wish their government hadn’t installed this clown as prime minister.
japan must need more ghetto makeshift firearms
It’s called a Doohickey, thank you very much