For subscribers
Hair dye, earthquakes and Takaichi’s great election gamble
Japan’s first female prime minister is pulling out all the stops in presenting herself as a force for real change.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi campaigning in Tokyo on Jan 27.
PHOTO: AFP
Leo Lewis
Moments into the first stump speech of her election campaign, Ms Sanae Takaichi asked voters to imagine her dyeing her hair – a procedure that Japan’s 104th prime minister said she performed herself.
Mid-application, in her scenario, disaster strikes. It’s the Big One: the cataclysmic earthquake that Tokyo has long dreaded. Basic services, including water supply, are severed.
