Japan has a new leader, and hardworking Americans should be paying attention. Lawmakers in Tokyo elected Sanae Takaichi as prime minister on October 21, 2025, making her the country’s first woman to hold the office and ending months of political drift that weakened a key ally. Her rise restores conservative leadership in Japan at a moment when the free world badly needs steady partners.
Takaichi is not a fashionable, progressive panderer — she wears her conservative convictions openly and even cites Margaret Thatcher as an inspiration. Her record shows a mix of economic nationalism, social conservatism, and a willingness to reassert Japan’s defense posture, which should reassure Americans who want allies who stand strong against authoritarian powers. But she is no shrinking violet about using government tools to steer the economy, and that matters for investors and trade partners alike.
On economics, Takaichi inherits a country still wrestling with the consequences of decades of stimulus, low rates, and slow growth, and she has embraced parts of the Abenomics playbook that once tried to reboot Japan’s fortunes. Markets cheered her victory in part because traders expect pro-growth, pro-business moves, yet smart conservatives know that cheering tape and hot money can evaporate fast if policy tilts toward unmoored spending or political meddling in the central bank. Tokyo’s experiment matters to Main Street America — a rattled yen or a bond-market shock in Japan will not stay confined to the Pacific.
Business titan Steve Forbes has applauded the Thatcheresque instincts in Takaichi’s rhetoric while sounding the alarm that she risks repeating the same stimulus-first mistakes that created Japan’s vulnerability in the first place. That is the conservative’s paradox: we back leaders who cut red tape, defend the homeland, and unleash growth, but we also demand fiscal sanity — reckless stimulus and central-bank politicization will blow up confidence and spread pain well beyond Japan’s shores. The choice before her is stark, and America’s economic security hangs in the balance if Tokyo doubles down on policies that reward short-term fireworks over long-term stability.
Patriots in Washington should cheer a strong, reliable Japan that stands with us against Beijing’s bullying, but we must also press for market-friendly reforms that restore fiscal discipline and private-sector dynamism. The Biden administration’s international cheerleading won’t be enough; constructive pressure and partnership — trade that rewards production, not bailouts, and defense ties that deter aggression — are the tools of real allies. If Sanae Takaichi truly wants to be a Thatcher for the 21st century, she’ll champion growth through freedom, not through ever-larger government checks that saddle future generations with debt.
Every American who wakes up early and works hard deserves allies who practice what we preach: low taxes, strong borders, and fiscal responsibility. Call this moment what it is — a chance for Japan to join the Free World as a robust economic partner again, or a cautionary tale if it chooses the false comforts of stimulus over the sustained courage of reform. The road she picks will affect jobs, prices, and security in our country, so conservatives here should root for reform and stand ready to hold leaders accountable when they flirt with policies that only enrich politicians and punish taxpayers.
