[morninglight]

As Japan's economy weakened, Abe and now Takaichi have promoted remilitarization. The big money in military hardware can sway any election. The US is a obvious example. The best "democracy" that money can buy.

[tjpnz]

With all the saber rattling from China what else were they supposed to be doing?

[yongjik]

I doubt that. Takaichi has (IMHO needlessly) angered China and China is lashing out - because China is much bigger, the economic pain will be much greater for Japan.

It's theoretically possible that Takaichi had a plan and decided the economic pain was worth it, but generally you don't win elections by hurting economy.