Sanae Takaichi during a campaign event in Kobe, Japan, on Jan. 29.
Photographer: Fred Mery/BloombergThe Big Take
Japan’s ‘Lone Wolf’ Seeks Election Mandate to Go Bold on Spending and China
Voters look set to back Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s vision of a more assertive Japan. Markets are wary.
Back in the mid-1980s, in a seaside town near Tokyo with stunning views of Mt. Fuji, Sanae Takaichi flashed early signs of a vision to transform Japan’s economy decades later.
Fresh out of university, where she paid her own way with a part-time job while also playing drums in a heavy metal band, Takaichi entered a highly regimented elite training program under the mentorship of Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic known in Japan as the “God of Management.”