Japan’s Sanae Takaichi touts spending as she enters leadership race
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Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi is currently the only woman to have officially declared an intention to contest the Liberal Democratic Party election.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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TOKYO – Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi launched a fresh bid to become Japan’s first woman prime minister with a pledge to use public money to boost jobs and growth.
The protege of late former prime minister Shinzo Abe and his aggressive monetary and fiscal policy views is the seventh Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker to formally enter the race to become ruling party leader at an election on Sept 27.
The winner is all but assured of becoming prime minister because of the LDP’s dominance in Parliament.
“With strategic fiscal spending, we can increase employment and incomes, lifting consumer confidence and securing tax revenue without raising tax rates,” Ms Takaichi said at a Sept 9 press conference.
While Japan appears to be escaping from decades of deflation, Ms Takaichi said rising prices were still primarily linked to high food and fuel costs.
The Bank of Japan’s target of sustained 2 per cent inflation has not been reached yet, she added.
Ms Takaichi has support among right-leaning lawmakers in the LDP and spent much of her press conference covering ideas on how to make Japan more resilient to natural disasters and security risks, including by boosting food and energy security.
She said Japan should consider its own version of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which vets foreign investments to assess potential national security risks.
Ms Takaichi placed third in the 2021 LDP leadership election.
She has been trailing Mr Shinjiro Koizumi and Mr Shigeru Ishiba among the expected line-up of candidates for the 2024 election in opinion polls of the public’s preferred prime minister, including a survey conducted over the weekend.
Ms Takaichi is currently the only woman to have officially declared an intention to contest the LDP election.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa is likely to join her as another woman in the field after she recently said she had secured the necessary nominations from lawmakers.
Prospective candidates must register by Sept 12 to complete the application process for the election. BLOOMBERG
