Since her historic election as Japan’s prime minister on October 21, Sanae Takaichi has hit the ground running on diplomacy and defense, generating an impressive array of global headlines. At a summit with Donald Trump mere days into her tenure, Takaichi pledged a “new golden age of the Japan-U.S. alliance” and committed to “further enhance [its] deterrence and response capabilities.” This followed her strikingly ambitious announcements to raise Japan’s defense-related spending to 2 percent of GDP two years ahead of schedule and to expedite revision of three major national security documents last updated just three years ago.