Shinzo Abe in the context of "University of Southern California"

Sanae Takaichi (born 7 March 1961) is a Japanese politician who is serving as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party since 2025. She is the first woman to hold either of these positions. A member of the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003 and since 2005, she also held several ministerial posts during the premierships of Shinzo Abe and Fumio Kishida.

Born and raised in Nara Prefecture, Takaichi graduated from Kobe University and worked as an author, legislative aide, and broadcaster before beginning her political career. Elected as an independent to the House of Representatives in the 1993 general election, she joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1996. A protégé of Prime Minister Abe, she held various positions during Abe's premiership, most notably as Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications. She was a candidate in the 2021 LDP leadership election, but was eliminated before the runoff, placing third. From 2022 to 2024, during Fumio Kishida's premiership, she served as the Minister of State for Economic Security.

Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan (日本国憲法第9条, Nihon koku kenpō dai kyū-jō) is a clause in the Constitution of Japan outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. The Constitution was drafted following the surrender of Japan in World War II. It came into effect on 3 May 1947 during the occupation of Japan by the Allies, which lasted until 28 April 1952. In its text, the state formally renounces the sovereign right of belligerency and aims at an international peace based on justice and order. The article also states that, to accomplish these aims, armed forces with war potential will not be maintained. The Constitution was imposed by U.S. military occupation (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) to prevent rearmament of Japan in the post–World War II period. This condition was a similar prohibition placed on post-war Germany, to be overseen by the United Kingdom, after World War I. However, Germany remilitarized anyway in the decades following despite this prohibition under the Weimar Republic and later Adolf Hitler's regime. This was a leading call for the Allied mandate, and the continuing US defense agreements that would render aid in maintaining Japanese sovereignty in the event of a foreign attack.

There are the post-occupation U.S. military stationed in Japan under the U.S.–Japan Mutual Cooperation and Security Treaty and Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) which was founded in 1954 as de facto postwar Japanese military. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a reinterpretation which gave more powers to the JSDF in 2014, which was passed by the Legislation for Peace and Security in 2015.

Fumio Kishida (born 29 July 1957) is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 2021 until his resignation in 2024. He has represented Hiroshima 1st in the House of Representatives since 1996. Before his premiership, he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017, as acting Minister of Defense in 2017, and he also chaired the LDP Policy Research Council from 2017 to 2020.

Born into a political family, Kishida spent part of his childhood in the United States, where he attended elementary school in New York City. After beginning his career in finance, Kishida entered politics and was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1993 general election as a member of the LDP. Kishida was appointed to Minister of State for Special Missions in the premiership of Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda from 2007 to 2008, and was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2012 after Abe regained the premiership following the 2012 general election, serving for five years and becoming the longest-serving Foreign Affairs Minister in Japanese history. Kishida resigned from the Abe cabinet in 2017 in order to head the LDP's Policy Research Council. Kishida also assumed leadership of the LDP's more moderate Kōchikai faction in 2012 following the retirement of faction leader Makoto Koga, a position he held until his resignation in 2023. Long considered a potential future prime minister, Kishida ran in the 2020 LDP presidential election, but lost to Yoshihide Suga. He ran again for the party leadership in 2021, this time winning in a second round run-off against opponent Taro Kono. Kishida was confirmed as prime minister by the National Diet four days later on 4 October 2021.

The 2021 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election was held on 29 September 2021 to elect the next President of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan and Prime Minister of Japan. Fumio Kishida was elected to lead the party and assumed the premiership on 4 October. He led the party into the 2021 Japanese general election.

President of the LDP and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced on 3 September that he would not run for his re-election, amid low approval ratings and media reports of dissension within the party. Suga was initially elected President of the LDP in 2020 to serve the rest of former prime minister Shinzo Abe's third and final term after Abe resigned in August 2020 due to health issues.

The Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum (大勲位菊花章, Dai-kun'i kikka-shō) is Japan's highest order. The Grand Cordon of the Order was established in 1876 by Emperor Meiji of Japan; the Collar of the Order was added on 4 January 1888. Unlike European counterparts, the order may be conferred posthumously.

Apart from the Imperial Family, only seven Japanese citizens have ever been decorated with the collar in their lifetimes; the last such award was to former prime minister Saionji Kinmochi in 1928. Eight others have been posthumously decorated with the collar; the last such award was to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. Today, only the reigning Emperor holds this dignity as sovereign of the order; however, exceptions are made for foreign heads of state, who can be awarded the collar in friendship.

The minister for foreign affairs (外務大臣, Gaimu Daijin) is a member of the cabinet of Japan and is the leader and chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The minister is responsible for implementing Japan's foreign policy and is also a statutory member of the National Security Council. The minister is nominated by the prime minister and is appointed by the emperor of Japan.

Since the end of the allied occupation of Japan, the position has been one of the most powerful in the cabinet, as Japan's economic interests have long relied on foreign relations. The recent efforts of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe to establish a more interventionist foreign policy have also heightened the importance of the position.

The legislation for peace and security (Japanese: 平和安全法制, Hepburn: Heiwa anzen hōsei) is a package of legislation that enables Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defence in certain situations. In 2014, an advisory panel formed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recommended that Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which prohibits the use of military force to resolve international disputes, be reinterpreted to allow Japan to mobilise the Japan Self-Defence Forces to assist an allied country that has come under attack. Legislation to facilitate this change was submitted to the Japanese parliament in May 2015. Despite some public opposition, the law was passed by the House of Representatives in July 2015, and the House of Councillors in September 2015, coming into effect in March 2016.

The Satō–Kishi–Abe family is an extremely prominent political family in Japan. It has produced three prime ministers: Nobusuke Kishi, Eisaku Satō, and Shinzo Abe, who combined have served as Prime Minister of Japan for over 20 years. Kishi led the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) in its first election as a combined party. All politicians from the Satō-Kishi-Abe family continue to be associated with the LDP today