The Japanese are so enthusiastic about the hawkish, right-wing and pro-military stance of their new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, that she now plans to dissolve the legislature’s lower house and hold snap elections next month.

Takaichi’s government has maintained popularity ratings of around 70 percent ever since coming into power in October. If her election bid is successful, this will convert her remarkable popularity into more seats for her Liberal Democratic Party, likely restoring its single-party majority that was lost under her predecessor. Reclaiming a majority would give Takaichi the political fuel to further accelerate Japan’s already rapid remilitarization.

• Takaichi has long called for Japan to revise Article 9 of its Constitution, the so-called pacifist clause that was designed to prevent a return to full militarism.
• Under Takaichi’s leadership, Japan will reach its goal of spending 2 percent of gdp on defense, almost two years ahead of what was already a remarkably ambitious schedule.
• “I think we should possess nuclear weapons,” a senior security official in her cabinet told reporters on December 17. “In the end,” the official said, “we can only rely on ourselves.”
• In November, Takaichi said in the Diet: “If China invades Taiwan,” Japan would consider it an “existential crisis situation” and possibly deploy its Self-Defense Force.

The statement infuriated the Chinese, who retaliated with tighter import and export restrictions, but it struck a chord with Japan’s increasingly nationalist population.

“Conservatives welcome her remarks. … Business leaders may be worried about the economic relationship with China, but ordinary voters are not so worried about that. Her hawkishness reflects the new political atmosphere of Japan.”
—Yu Uchiyama, Tokyo University political scientist

From contenders to comrades: At present, hostility and fear are intensifying between Japan and China, motivating both of these world-leading peoples and economies to build up extraordinary military power and fueling the sky-high popularity of hawkish leaders such as Takaichi. But biblical prophecy shows that these two countries will soon come together, if only briefly, under Russian leadership, turn their power against the West, and help unleash the most devastating war in mankind’s history.