On Feb. 18, 2026, Sanae Takaichi was reappointed by Japan's Parliament and formed her second Cabinet, giving the country's first female prime minister a renewed mandate after last week's landslide election victory.
Takaichi used her news conference to sketch out a government that will be as focused on foreign policy as on domestic delivery. She said she hoped to deepen her relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and expand cooperation on rare earths development and other parts of economic security when she visits Washington next month. The timing matters: relations between Tokyo and Beijing have been tense for months, and Takaichi appears to want closer strategic alignment with the United States before she takes on China more directly.
Her parliamentary position gives her room to act. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party controls two-thirds of the 465-seat lower house, the more powerful chamber in Japan's parliament, which means it can dominate committee posts and push through bills the upper house might reject. Takaichi is using that strength to advance a hard-right agenda that includes more military spending, broader arms sales, tighter immigration rules, conservative positions on the imperial succession and marriage customs, and an effort to move Japan further away from its postwar pacifist norms.
The first test, however, is not ideological. It is economic. Takaichi says her immediate task is to handle rising prices, sluggish wages and a delayed budget bill needed to fund relief measures. She has proposed a two-year cut in sales tax on food products to ease household costs. Critics warn that an aggressive fiscal approach could keep inflation elevated and make it harder to reduce Japan's enormous national debt, but the prime minister seems intent on turning her election mandate into spending power.
The United States angle is already taking shape. Hours before her reappointment, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced that Japan would provide capital for three projects under a $550 billion investment package Tokyo pledged in October. The first batch, worth $36 billion, includes a natural gas plant in Ohio, a crude oil export facility on the U.S. Gulf Coast and a synthetic diamond manufacturing site. Takaichi said she hoped to work closely with Trump on the early phase of those initiatives when the two meet on March 19.
China remains the sharpest foreign-policy fault line. In November, Takaichi suggested Japan could act if China made a military move against Taiwan, prompting Beijing to retaliate diplomatically and economically. Supporters view that posture as evidence that she is willing to be firm with Japan's biggest regional rival. Critics worry it will deepen tension in a region already defined by military competition and economic strain.
For now, Takaichi is trying to convert election momentum into policy control at home and leverage abroad. Her second Cabinet begins with the same challenge that marked her first: showing that a sweeping mandate can become durable government rather than just another short-lived political surge.
