by WorldTribune Staff, February 20, 2026 Real World News
American media consumers deprived of relevant international news have taken note of the emergence of Japan’s first female prime minister but may not appreciate its geopolitical significance.
“From the Japanese perspective, the U.S. became increasingly more ‘mercurial’ since the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the U.S. pivot from the ‘Far East’ to the ‘Middle East.’ There was never a pivot back despite the rhetoric,” commentator Edo Naito noted in a Feb. 19 analysis on LinkedIn.
The leadership vacuum created in the region was quickly filled by communist China under Xi Jinping.
The late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was widely considered the mentor and close political ally of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who rose to her position in October 2025.
Takaichi is seen as the ideological successor to Abe, championing his conservative vision including efforts to amend Japan’s constitution to restore the nation’s clout of its military “Self Defense” force.
Takaichi has also accelerated Japan’s National Defense Plan and forged a close bond with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Xi was encouraged to accelerate his plans to establish uncontested hegemony in Asia after there were no repercussions of any kind for his broken commitment to then-President Obama not to militarize the reclaimed rocks in the South China Sea, nor for Beijing’s accountability for the global Covid pandemic,” Naito wrote.
“Xi interpreted this as ‘the West was weak and dying.’ He then accelerated even further the fastest and largest buildup since WWII of both conventional arms and weapons of mass destruction with total impunity.”
Meanwhile, all U.S. presidents since the 9-11 attacks had called on Japan to take on more of its own defense.
Abe was the first to effectively answer the call.
“Under the leadership of Shinzo Abe, he repositioned Japan to do that, permanently breaking the 1% defense ceiling and confirming Japan’s right to collective self-defense,” Naito wrote. “Abe was also the primary force behind the Kishida administration’s redraft of the National Defense Plan, including doubling defense spending to 2% by the end of fiscal 2027.”
Takaichi, who was given a sweeping mandate to pursue her conservative policy agenda in this month’s landslide election victory for her party, accelerated that by two full years.
“Under the updated Defense and Security plans to be published later this year, there is no doubt that Japan will continue to spend whatever is required, without artificial caps, for Japan not only to defend itself, conventionally, but also to provide a deterrence for itself and its proximate neighbors in the First Island Chain,” Naito noted.
Takaichi is also focused on restoring continuous economic growth by investing heavily, with joint government and private backing, in 17 strategic areas – semiconductors and AI, defense industry and technology, shipbuilding, energy and food security, critical materials, quantum technology, cyber and space, drugs, and others.
“All of these areas align well with the U.S.’s own priorities. Japan is open to close cooperation, so President Trump and the U.S. should be very pleased,” Naito wrote.
“And both of these efforts will tie the U.S. (and other select partners, such as India, Taiwan, South Korea) closer to Japan in ways that make abandonment very unlikely.”
This is what the U.S. has been asking of Japan and other “allies” for years.
“The barrage of vitriol targeting Takaichi at Xi Jinping’s direction in November did no harm to her or to Japan, arguably quite the opposite. Some experts are now speculating that, with this landslide victory, the CCP will accept that Takaichi will be there for the long term and may quietly dial it back. If they do dial back the rhetoric or modify some of the economic weaponization, it will not change anything,” Naito wrote.
Xi is unlikely to find Japan’s newfound confidence and clarity very attractive.
“Japan will never threaten anyone. Japan will speak softly as always, I believe that all Indo-Pacific countries, except China, will very warmly welcome a stronger, more confident, non-threatening leadership from Japan. After all, Japan is already seen as the most trustworthy country in the region,” Naito concluded.
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