KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Ten days of conversations in Tokyo revealed a Takaichi premiership more fragile than the conventional indicators would suggest.
- Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, isolated from dissenting voices, is not scaling back her ambitions for an industrial revival and a defense buildup, notwithstanding the challenges facing both programs and the risks of a significant increase in deficit spending that would unsettle markets.
- Meanwhile, Japan’s policymakers and experts are deeply uneasy about the Hormuz crisis and the broader relationship with the US, though the government’s response to these challenges is mainly reactive, though discussions about ways of hedging against US abandonment continue.
Japan Foresight 