Iron Lady Wins Big

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi just won a landslide victory.

The Land of the Rising Sun’s first female PM called for snap elections Sunday (learn what snap elections are here). The risk paid off… 90% of her party’s Liberal Democratic candidates won, securing 316 out of 465 seats for the actually-quite-conservative Liberals. With her two-thirds supermajority, Takaichi aims to tackle the world’s fourth-largest economy’s massive debt and sluggish growth, an aging population, and tensions with neighboring China. 

The “Iron Lady” made waves in the Pacific by promising to check Chinese threats to Japan’s islands, including those near Taiwan. Central to Takaichi’s plan for a “strong and prosperous” Japan is major defense spending; President Trump praised her "conservative, peace through strength agenda,” while Beijing said Tokyo is on the “wrong path” toward “militarism.”

ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Just as many Americans view the outcomes of foreign elections with a certain level of detachment, Christians view earthly political outcomes as secondary to the campaign of our eternal home, where we hold our truest citizenship. 

“From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective… In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.” 
2 Corinthians 5:16, 19-20 (CSB) (read full passage)