But when I think about what Prime Minister Takeuchi is doing in terms of the increase on defense spending, do you think it's likely that the Japanese government will look to the United States for armaments or any type of military hardware to help the Prime Minister reach her goal?

Certainly.

I mean, Japan has long, long been reliant almost entirely on the US.

Apart from its own armaments, it's reliant almost entirely on the US for any arms imports.

So certainly, Japan will be looking to probably buy more.

We already had a huge expansion in defence spending in the pipeline when she came to office.

She's promised to bring that forward.

But how are things functioning in the economy?

Is there something that the population in Japan is expecting from her?

I think she came in talking about all the things that the Japanese are worried about at the moment.

So last summer, during the upper house elections, one of the issues that kind of cropped up more than it ever had done before was immigration.

And while she didn't take a very strong stance on it, but she was more outspoken about the need for limits on immigration and the need to clamp down on sort of non-nationals who commit crimes or who break the rules.

So that was popular with the people who had kind of drifted to a more sort of right wing new party that had cropped up.

over the past couple of years.

So she was able to co-opt, I think, those people into supporting her.

Talk to me a little bit about the way in which she's being evaluated when it comes to foreign policy, whether we're talking about the relationship with the US and trade issues, whether we're talking about mainland China, or even to somewhat lesser extent, South Korea.

Isabel, I wonder if you can tell us about that and what the reaction to that was.

Yeah, so the Consul General in Osaka, Shui Jiang, forgive my Chinese, I don't speak it at all.

So the very day after this debate in Parliament, he started posting messages on X on Twitter, saying things about the dirty neck that sticks in where it's not wanted will be sliced off with no hesitation.

He's known for that kind of rhetoric.

So it wasn't all that surprising from him.

And he did delete it.

But by that time, it had already been reported by the Japanese media.

And Isabel, I wonder, how does Japan see this?

There may be an expectation that she's not gonna last, and it may well be that kind of thinking is driving the Chinese reaction to Takeuchi-san as well, that if we push, then she'll be gone, and we'll have someone less hawkish to deal with.

That sounds very likely to me as well.

I mean, whether she actually is weak or not, that remains to be seen.

Obviously, her position at the moment isn't all that strong, but some people say she could call an election pretty soon.

She's got massive public support, and she could even manage to grab back a majority for her LDP on its own without any coalition partners if her support rate stays how it is.

And honestly, the things that China's saying, it's hard to say right now because the economic effects have not filtered through yet.

But just that kind of rhetoric, I think, is much more likely to add to support for Takeuchi than the other way around.

And Isabel, I wonder, how does Japan see this?

Is that fair?

Yes, you're absolutely right there.

The big issue in the election, as it was in the last election, is the issue of inflation in Japan.

It's the cost of living.

The level of frustration is growing among the public.

They've been putting up with this situation where prices are growing much faster than their own wages.

And the question is how to deal with that situation.

Put the election in context of trying to work out a trade deal with the U.S.