Lack of moderate voices around Japan PM Sanae Takaichi sparks concern

TOKYO – With Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on

Japan’s potential involvement in a Taiwan emergency

sparking tensions with China, concern is mounting that the absence of moderate voices around her could allow her hardline tendencies to go largely unchecked.

With senior moderates within her party and a centrist coalition partner drifting away from the hawkish Ms Takaichi, doubts are also growing over her ability to steer diplomacy beyond China, as well as coordinate economic and social policies.

Ms Takaichi’s decision to form a coalition with a conservative party ahead of becoming

Japan’s first female prime minister

on Oct 21, 2025, “has left few remaining checks on her hardline course”, an opposition lawmaker warned.

She is described by many as the heir to former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was

assassinated in 2022

and whose firm stance on security she admired.

Mr Abe, however, was “more skilled” at building consensus through dialogue than Ms Takaichi, the lawmaker said.

Less than a week after Ms Takaichi won the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) presidential election on Oct 4, the Komeito party ended its 26-year alliance with the LDP in frustration over its response to political fund scandals.

Komeito, backed by Japan’s biggest lay Buddhist organisation, Soka Gakkai, has maintained amicable relations with the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) by emphasising dialogue, often serving as a communication channel when official ties are strained.

Beijing has hailed the late Daisaku Ikeda, the Komeito founder and long-time Soka Gakkai leader who advocated the early normalisation of Japan-China diplomatic relations years before ties were normalised in 1972, for his role in promoting bilateral exchanges.

Even within her party, Ms Takaichi lacks advisers familiar with China, with heavyweights such as former LDP secretary-general Hiroshi Moriyama, an ally of her predecessor Shigeru Ishiba, no longer in her inner circle, political observers say.

In 2025, Mr Moriyama, as head of a cross-party group tasked with ensuring stable relations with China, helped persuade Beijing to

resume imports of Japanese food products

, some of which have been re-suspended following Ms Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan.

On economic policy, Ms Takaichi gave key Cabinet posts to lawmakers who share her view that

expansionary spending is necessary for growth

, while effectively sidelining calls to rein in government bond issuance to preserve Japan’s fiscal credibility.

As her ruling bloc holds only a slim majority in the House of Representatives, while falling short of a majority in the House of Councillors, she is also seeking support from the Democratic Party for the People, a fiscally dovish opposition force.

Before Komeito announced it would leave the coalition, Mr Takahide Kiuchi, an executive economist at Nomura Research Institute, had said a Komeito departure would give Ms Takaichi’s LDP “greater leeway” in shaping its policies.

Some pundits argue that policy decisions made with such a free hand, driven solely by like-minded aides, could hinder the building of carefully calibrated diplomatic ties with other countries and even weigh on economic growth.

Especially on the diplomatic front, Ms Takaichi’s oft-repeated pledge to strengthen Japan’s defence has irked China and drawn criticism from some in South Korea, even as Tokyo’s relations with Seoul have improved at the leadership level.

“As the number of lawmakers with first-hand wartime experience has declined and Komeito has left the government, restraints on boosting Japan’s defence capabilities have eroded,” political commentator Harumi Arima said, referring to developments under Ms Takaichi.

A government source said Ms Takaichi is likely to struggle to handle complex matters as Mr Abe did, citing shortcomings in political finesse and policy delivery strategy.

Mr Abe, who served as prime minister for one year from 2006 and again from 2012 to 2020, was known as a pro-Taiwan lawmaker but visited mainland China on his first overseas trip after taking office, aiming to mend bilateral relations.

When Sino-Japanese ties frayed against a backdrop of territorial and wartime history issues, Mr Abe relied on Komeito as a liaison to the CPC and appointed Mr Toshihiro Nikai, an influential lawmaker close to China, as the LDP’s No. 2.

Under Mr Abe, Mr Nikai became the longest-serving LDP secretary-general, holding the post for over five years from 2016. He met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2019 as a special envoy.

Under Mr Abe, differences also existed in economic policy with Komeito, with the premier placing importance on corporate performance while Komeito prioritised welfare policies and support for low-income households, but the two parties found compromises through repeated consultations.

Ms Takaichi is “unilaterally pro-Taiwan, and even looking at her personal networks, there appears to be no one around her willing to voice opposing views”, the government source said.

“She does not seem capable of formulating policies through adequate communication.”

In contrast to Mr Abe, Ms Takaichi has not stopped senior LDP lawmakers from visiting Taiwan even after she infuriated Beijing by indicating that Japan could exercise its right to collective self-defence if China uses force against the self-ruled democratic island.

Mr Ichiro Ozawa, a kingpin of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, lambasted Ms Takaichi for “pouring fuel on the fire under the circumstances”, saying on social media that he cannot understand what she is thinking. KYODO NEWS