Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers her coverage speech within the Parliament, in Tokyo, Japan, on February 20, 2026.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warned of rising Chinese language “coercion” in her first post-election speech to parliament on Friday (February 20, 2026), and pledged to overtake defence technique, ease curbs on navy exports and strengthen crucial provide chains.
Ms. Takaichi’s four-month tenure has been marked by a diplomatic dispute with China after she mentioned Japan may deploy navy power to counter any assault on Taiwan that additionally threatened Japanese territory. After turning a fragile majority right into a landslide victory on this month’s decrease home election, Ms. Takaichi outlined an agenda aimed at countering what she sees as a rising financial and safety risk from China and its regional companions.
With greater than two-thirds of seats now managed by her ruling coalition, she faces little resistance to her plans.
“Japan faces its most extreme and sophisticated safety surroundings since World Conflict Two,” Ms. Takaichi mentioned, pointing to China’s increasing navy exercise, its nearer safety ties with Russia and North Korea’s rising nuclear missile functionality.
The federal government would revise Japan’s three core safety paperwork this yr to supply a brand new defence technique and would speed up a assessment of navy export guidelines to increase abroad gross sales and strengthen defence firms, she added.
“China has intensified its makes an attempt to unilaterally change the established order by way of power or coercion within the East China Sea and South China Sea,” she informed lawmakers.
Ms. Takaichi has hastened a navy build-up launched in 2023 that can double Japan’s defence spending to 2% of GDP by the tip of March, making it one of many world’s greatest navy spenders, regardless of its pacifist structure.
She additionally introduced plans for a nationwide intelligence council chaired by her to consolidate info gathered throughout companies, together with police and the defence ministry.
Japan doesn’t have international or home intelligence companies such because the U.S. Central Intelligence Company (CIA) or Britain’s MI5.
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Past safety, Ms. Takaichi proposed a Japanese model of the U.S. Committee on Overseas Funding (CFIUS) to display screen abroad funding in delicate sectors, and mentioned guidelines governing land purchases by foreigners could be reviewed. She pledged to strengthen provide chains to cut back dependence on “particular nations” and work with allies to safe crucial supplies, together with uncommon earths, round Minamitori, a distant Pacific island.
Ms. Takaichi additionally promised to hurry the restart of reactors idled for the reason that Fukushima nuclear plant catastrophe in 2011.
“A nation that doesn’t tackle challenges has no future,” she mentioned in concluding remarks. “Politics that solely seeks to guard can’t encourage hope.”
Printed – February 20, 2026 12:03 pm IST