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Two key factors have led Japan to choose its first female prime minister: the rise of a young right-wing party called Sanseito and the need for a leader who can gel with President Donald Trump. Without those factors, Japan’s parliamentary leaders would have likely done what they’ve done many times in the past: chosen a son of a previous prime minister like Shinjiro Koizumi, who was also in the running. Instead, they turned to Sanae Takaichi, a 64-year-old fan of heavy metal music who once played drums in her own metal band and who has enough in common with the Sanseito to blunt their push for power. As President Trump begins a three day visit to Japan, the two are likely to forge the kind of friendship that eluded Trump and current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (Trump literally left Ishiba behind after a White House press conference concluded) but it’s the rise of the Sanseito and Takaichi’s ability to address the same issues that earned them over a dozen seats in the Japanese Parliament that has proved to be critical. The likely selection comes after Charlie Kirk give a speech to the Sanseito in Tokyo days before his assassination. The late Charlie Kirk speaks at “Culture War” Turning Point USA event at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio on October 29, 2019. (MEGAN JELINGER/AFP via Getty Images) Kirk made an appearance in my free speech documentary No Safe Spaces in 2018, and we had remained in contact since then. He was aware of my background growing up as an expat in Tokyo and my reporting on Japan. Kirk reached out by phone from Japan an hour before his speech and our conversation centered around Japan and the message he was preparing to deliver. The first thing we discussed was that Japan’s crisis was unlikely to be solved by politics because at its root it’s a spiritual one. To wit: 1.5 million young Japanese are holed up in their homes, suffering from severe depression that leaves them unable to function in society. I shared with Kirk my recent reporting for Newsweek, about an unusual visit I had made to a cemetery dedicated to the memory of aborted fetuses and my surprise when the Buddhist proprietor blamed Japan’s post-World War II abortion policies for the nation’s current demographic crisis, which has in turn led to an increased need for foreign workers needed to perform basic services for members of an aging society. Our conversation moved to the movement of the young Japanese right that Kirk would be speaking to, and we discussed the disdain that some in this group have for the U.S. occupation forces and the work of General Douglas MacArthur. In their view, MacArthur imposed a constitution on them that they now believe should be either completely thrown out or comprehensively revised. These revisionists look to get rid of Japan’s renunciation of the use of offensive military force, which is contained in Article IX of Japan’s Constitution, and make other fundamental changes that would reverse many of the reforms which the U.S. had ushered in. We also discussed MacArthur’s unusual request for thousands of American missionaries and millions of Bibles to flood Japan shortly after the end of World War II. Kirk seemed particularly surprised and upset about the animus toward MacArthur, mentioning that he had a particular affection for the general’s work and greatly admired him. Our talk was brief—no more than 10 minutes—but Kirk ended it with a very personal and spiritual plea: “Pray for me.” The next morning, wondering how it had gone, I texted him but never received a response. But after his murder, a mutual friend who had heard from Kirk shared with me a screenshot of a text from him that read: “I shared Jesus today with a massive group of Japanese!” It was vintage Kirk, who in recent years had taken to peppering his political speeches with references to the importance of faith in God. His speech in Japan turned out to be the final of his life. And when it is publicly released by his Japanese hosts, we will have a clearer picture of his message to Japan and the rising conservative movement there led by its new prime minister, who seems ready to challenge some of the orthodoxies of the post-war U.S.-Japan relationship. Mark Joseph is a filmmaker, author, Newsweek senior columnist and host of the Mark Joseph Show podcast. The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
