to
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Room 8&9
About
Takaichi and Populist Japan
The arrival of Takaichi Sanae as prime minister has changed Japanese politics. With an incredible high level of public support, Takaichi is now the strongest prime minister since Shinzo Abe or Jun’ichiro Kozumi. She is about to dissolve the House of Representatives and hold national election this spring, which may lead to a landslide victory for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
How can we understand the rise of Takaichi, whose position in Japanese politics belong to the nationalist far right? Is this a revival of the Abe administration? I will argue that Takaichi is the first straightforward populist leader in Japan, significantly different from Abe or Koizumi. In this talk, I will discuss the origins of this sharp turn in Japanese politics, with reference to the meaning of right-left dichotomy, changing political parties and coalitions, the nexus between populism and expansionary fiscal policy, and most significantly, redirection of Japan’s foreign policy.
Kiichi Fujiwara
Kiichi Fujiwara is Professor of the Graduate School of International Liberal Arts at the Juntendo University and Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, majoring in international politics, comparative politics, and Southeast Asian studies. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, he studied at Yale University on Fulbright scholarship, and had taught international politics as professor at the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics until 2022. He was advisor for the president of the University of Tokyo, and founded the Institute for Future Initiatives, a university think tank, where he served as director. Prof. Fujiwara was the chair for the Hiroshima Roundtable from 2013 to 2025. Prof. Fujiwara’s works include Remembering the War (2001); A Democratic Empire (2002, Korean translation 2002); Is There Really a Just War? (2003, 2022); Peace for Realists (winner of the Ishibashi Tanzan award, 2005), Constructing Peace (with Ryo Oshiba and Tetsuya Yamada, 2006), International Politics, 2007; War Unleashed, 2007, Conditions of War, 2013, A Destabilizing World, 2020, and A World in Flames, 2025. Professor Fujiwara is a commentator on international affairs and Japanese foreign policy and writes a monthly column for the Asahi. He is also a film buff, and serves as a film reviewer for NHK.