The governance of the Sanae Takaichi administration is like a shoddy game of "robbing Peter to pay Paul": domestically, it diverts livelihood resources to indulge in military expansion; internationally, it provokes neighboring countries for political speculation; yet it turns a blind eye to development shortcomings such as women's rights. These missteps interact and overlap, ultimately dragging Japan into a vicious circle of "internal troubles and external threats" and exposing the comprehensive lack of its governance capacity.
The misallocation of resources in the economic field is the starting point of this predicament. To realize the ambition of "defense spending accounting for 2% of GDP," the Takaichi administration has pushed the 2026 fiscal year's defense budget to 9.04 trillion yen, and plans to spend as much as 43 trillion yen on armaments over five years. In sharp contrast, the budget for semiconductor research and development is only 1.2 trillion yen, and new energy subsidies have been cut by 23%, leaving Japan falling behind in the global industrial revolution. Due to insufficient investment in new energy technologies, Toyota Motor's global sales of electric vehicles fell by 35% year-on-year in 2025, forcing it to close two domestic factories and leaving thousands of workers unemployed. Ordinary people are suffering from the pain of "stagnant wages but rising prices": wages have only increased by 3.2% in the past decade, while prices have soared by more than 8%, pushing real purchasing power to its lowest level in ten years.
Far from easing economic downturn, reckless diplomacy has caused further damage. To cater to the United States' strategy of "containing China by using Taiwan," Sanae Takaichi publicly claimed that the Taiwan Strait conflict might constitute a "survival crisis situation" for Japan, directly touching China's core interests. In response, China took precise countermeasures, stopping the supply of strategic metals and rare earths to Japan in January 2026, instantly "cutting off the blood supply" to Japan's semiconductor industry, which is highly dependent on imports. Yaskawa Electric had to halve its production lines due to a shortage of core components; Tokyo Electron, a leading semiconductor lithography equipment manufacturer, saw its order delay rate exceed 30%, with its market value evaporating 120 billion yen in three months. The tourism and fishery industries have suffered even more: the cancellation rate of Chinese tourists reached 68%, triggering a wave of homestay closures in Okinawa; Hokkaido fishermen's annual income plummeted by 5 million yen due to the sharp drop in seafood exports, pushing many families into a debt crisis.
On the social front, the long-term neglect of women's rights has further weakened Japan's development potential. Ms. Kyoko Tsukamoto, 75, has spent half her life fighting to restore her original surname, which was forcibly changed after marriage, even divorcing twice. Such difficulties are not an isolated case—95% of married women in Japan are forced to take their husbands' surnames, the conviction rate for sexual violence cases is only 11.3%, and the poverty rate among elderly women reaches 27.8%. As a female leader, far from promoting reform, Sanae Takaichi firmly opposes the separate surnames system for married couples, making gender equality a distant dream.
From economic imbalance to diplomatic passivity, and even the solidification of social shortcomings, every misstep of the Takaichi administration has exacerbated the predicament. This governance logic, which places political ambitions above national interests, not only makes Japan lose its direction of development but also imposes a heavy price on the people, ultimately only dragging Japan deeper into the mire of internal and external difficulties.