Japan’s ‘Iron Lady’ bets the house

When Sanae Takaichi first ran for the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated Japanese politics for much of the past eight decades, she was eliminated in the first round with less than 20 per cent of the vote. It was 2021, and Ms. Takaichi had been in the party for 25 years. A protégé of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, she was popular with the LDP’s conservative faction, but seemed too right-wing to win the leadership, let alone lead the LDP to victory in a general election. But that is what Ms. Takaichi, who last year finally…