Is this the world’s most powerful woman? | The Economist

She seems extremely cool. But tell me more about Japan's. prime minister. She is pretty cool. She's a mould-breaker. Of course, she's the. first Japanese. female prime minister. She is not a part of the old party. machinery, in the sense. that she comes from. a very ordinary, middle-class background, whereas many of Japan's former. prime ministers have been. the sons, always the sons, of former prime minsters. or former ministers. She is a sort of. refreshing character. She communicates. well on social media. She plays the drums,

she was in a heavy metal... the drummer in a heavy metal. band at university. and she still picks up. the sticks quite often. She rides a motorbike. or has done, probably doesn’t. so much anymore. She generally very cool. She has, like Margaret Thatcher, an iconic handbag, which has been selling out. across Japan. She’s altogether a rather. refreshing figure. Though not especially young, she's 62, which is kind of average. for Japanese PMs. But no, a very interesting. new figure indeed.

And she's won. what is an extraordinarily. large majority, the biggest majority that her party, the LDP, has had. The biggest majority. that any party has had. since the end of the. second world war. Nobody's had a mandate like this. So it's incredibly. powerful and unprecedented. So, Noah, what was it like? What is it like in Tokyo? There was a lot of uncertainty. heading into this election. It was a much more. fluid moment. in Japanese politics. than we've had for a long time. And, even on election day, nobody really knew how. things were going to turn out, not least because there was.

a giant snowstorm. that hit Japan on election day. and made it very hard. to get to polling places. Even Tokyo, which is rarely. snowy, was covered in white. And when the results. started to become clear, the scale, the historic scale of this victory, it felt a bit like. the small earthquakes. that are more common here. A bit like the ground. kind of shifting under one’s feet. And it was a really stunning result, even for people inside the LDP. Perhaps you can give us. a quick primer of what indeed. are her big promises. So I think her slogan essentially.

is that she wants. to make Japan stronger. and she wants to make. Japan prosperous. Hard to argue with either. element of those. But, you know, the stronger. piece is essentially. about beefing up. Japan's armed forces, building out the security state. The prosperous piece. gets a bit trickier. when you get into the details. of how she plans. to make that happen. But these are, again, these are long-standing goals. that the LDP has had. I think it's worth remembering. that for all of her. mould-breaking style,

she is a 30-year. veteran of the 70-year. ruling party in Japan. She's very much a creature. of the establishment. She's not an outsider. trying to tear down. the establishment. She's the one the LDP turned to. to really fend off the challenge. from the kind of populist. disruptors who were starting. to make inroads. heading into this election.