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President Donald Trump arrives Monday in Japan where new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is banking on building a friendly personal relationship with the US leader to ease trade tensions. One key to this strategy might lie in an idea floated by Japan's government to buy a fleet of Ford F-150 trucks, a meaningful gesture that may also be impractical given the narrow streets in Tokyo and other Japanese cities. It's an early diplomatic test for Takaichi, the first woman to lead Japan. She took office only last week, and has a tenuous coalition backing her. Trump instantly bought into the idea of Ford trucks as he flew to Asia aboard Air Force One. She has good taste, Trump told reporters. That's a hot truck. The two spoke over the phone while Trump was mid-flight on Saturday. Takaichi stressed her status as a protege of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a favorite of Trump's from his first term, and said she praised him for brokering the Gaza ceasefire that led to the return of hosta
Just days after taking office, Japan's new leader faces a series of back-to-back foreign policy tests, with a meeting with US President Donald Trump in Tokyo sandwiched between Asia-region summits in Malaysia and South Korea. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, with limited experience in international affairs, will have to manage Trump's demands and unpredictability and China's wariness of her strong support for a military build-up and her right-wing views on Japan's invasion of China before and during World War II. She arrives in Malaysia on Saturday for meetings with Southeast Asian leaders, then returns to Japan to meet Trump before heading to South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit at the end of the week. In her first news conference as prime minister, she described her schedule as packed with diplomatic events and said it will be a valuable opportunity to meet other regional leaders. Chinese leader Xi Jinping will also attend the summit in South Korea, where ta
Share prices have soared recently in Tokyo on hopes that conservative Japanese lawmaker Sanae Takaichi, who was chosen on Tuesday to be Japan's first female prime minister, will double down on market-friendly policies, including hefty spending on defense and cheap credit. The benchmark Nikkei 225 share index climbed close to the symbolically important 50,000 level, gaining 0.7 per cent to 49,517.57. Takaichi, a motorbike and heavy metal enthusiast, prevailed in a lower house parliamentary ballot that gave her 237 votes, above the 233 votes required to win. Here's what might be expected from what has been dubbed Sanaenomics: Inflation and wages are the top concerns ----------------------------------------------- Increases in consumer prices have surpassed the Bank of Japan's 2 per cent target range at 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent. So the central bank is gradually raising rates from their longstanding level near or below zero. Wages remain near the level they were at 30 years ago, onl
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated Sanae Takaichi on her election as Japan's prime minister and said he looked forward to working closely to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two nations. Takaichi, the first woman prime minister of Japan, succeeds Shigeru Ishiba. "Heartiest congratulations, Sanae Takaichi, on your election as the Prime Minister of Japan," Modi said in a post on X. "I look forward to working closely with you to further strengthen the India'?Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership. Our deepening ties are vital for peace, stability, and prosperity across the Indo-Pacific and beyond," Modi said.
Japan's parliament is set to elect ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country's first female prime minister on Tuesday, one day after her struggling party struck a coalition deal with a new partner that would pull her governing bloc further to the right. Takaichi will replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, ending a three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the Liberal Democratic Party's disastrous election loss in July. Ishiba, who lasted only one year in office, resigned with his Cabinet earlier Tuesday, paving the way for his successor. The LDP's off-the-cuff alliance with the Osaka-based rightwing Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin no Kai, ensures her premiership in a vote later in the day because the opposition is not united. Takaichi's untested alliance is still short of a majority in both houses of parliament and they need to court other opposition groups to pass any legislation -- a risk that could make her government unstable and short-lived. Political stability i
Japan's former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who was known for his 1995 Murayama statement apologising to Asian victims of his country's aggression, died Friday. He was 101. Murayama died at a hospital in his hometown Oita, southwestern Japan, according to a statement from Mizuho Fukushima, the head of Japan's Social Democratic Party. As head of what was then known as the Japan Socialist Party, Murayama led a coalition government from June 1994 to January 1996. The apology he issued as prime minister on Aug 15, 1995, marking the 50th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender ending World War II, is seen as Japan's main expression of remorse for its wartime and colonial past. It has since been endorsed by all prime ministers until nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stopped apologising in 2013. Murayama had criticised growing attempts by nationalist lawmakers to discredit the apology for forced prostitution by citing the lack of official wartime documents specifically ..
The head of Japan's Komeito says it is leaving the ruling coalition headed by the Liberal Democratic Party due to concerns over corruption. The decision announced Friday by Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito deals a serious blow to the Liberal Democrats, who last weekend chose ultra-conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi as its leader. Takaichi could still become Japan's first female prime minister, but the departure of the Buddhist-backed Komeito will compel the Liberal Democrats to find at least one other coalition partner in order to stay in power. The ruling coalition had already lost its majorities in both houses of parliament. The lower house is due to vote on a new prime minister later this month.
Outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba 's ruling party opened official campaigning Monday to find his replacement who can restore political stability and voter support for the beleaguered Liberal Democrats. Five candidates are vying for the Liberal Democratic Party's top job ahead of a highly unpredictable vote in early October. The race has a slogan: Change, LDP. The winner must act quickly to address rising prices if the party is to have any chance of winning back support following devastating losses to both the LDP and its junior partner Komeito in the past year that deprived their coalition of a majority in either house of parliament. Its new leader is still likely to be prime minister because the LDP remains the No. 1 party, while opposition groups are too splintered to form a coalition. Whoever becomes the LDP leader must also gain cooperation from main opposition parties or risk facing constant no-confidence motions and a cycle of short-lived leadership. Vote for L