Across Asia, the reaction to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi¡¯s election triumph has been near unanimous: A stronger Japan is good for the region. Everyone, that is, except China.
Japan¡¯s first-ever female premier secured a historic victory, handing her the strongest mandate of any leader in the country¡¯s postwar era. The scale of this win matters far beyond Japan. Under Takaichi, Tokyo is increasingly viewed as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific ¡ª a stunning reversal for a country that once made Asia deeply wary of any resurgence in its military power. That shift is not happening because the region has forgotten the past. Rather, it¡¯s pragmatically trying to manage the present.
Japan¡¯s occupation of much of Southeast Asia between 1941 and 1945 was marked by severe brutality. Beijing continues to invoke this history ¡ª and its own traumatic experience ¡ª to warn against any revival of Tokyo¡¯s military role.
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