Briefing MONTHLY #93 | February 2026

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It’s not often a drum-playing, self-proclaimed Iron Lady becomes a country’s first female PM, so it’s understandable that Sanae Takaichi’s personal brand has received so much attention. After a thumping election win, we now get to see how her equally fascinating policy agenda will play out – and a good place to start is the island of Okinawa. Catch up on what comes next for Japan, Bangladesh and Thailand after a big month for elections in NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH. We also decipher the Chinamaxxing trend that’s making one veteran sporting brand very happy.

Back home, the Liberal Party’s new leader Angus Taylor’s favourite talking point is Australia’s immigration policy. In ASIAN NATION we look at the facts and figures behind the noisy debate.

Meanwhile, the Albanese government is still considering how to approach the Board of Peace. Our Northern neighbour Indonesia is all in, with President Prabowo Subianto revelling in a Washington visit.

Even billionaires have bad days. Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing had one of those when a Panama court threw a wrench into his plan to sell off strategic maritime assets (see DEALS & DOLLARS).

Thanks for reading.

Emma Connors
Briefing MONTHLY editor

When it comes to politics, Okinawa is a special case. Located some 1600 kilometres from Tokyo, campaigning on the island has long had a military bent. What happened there on February 8 gives some indication of the electoral force that swept through the nation.

It’s fair to say that after US forces defeated the Imperial Japanese Army on Okinawa on June 22, 1945, they never left. Unlike mainland Japan, which regained sovereignty in 1952, Okinawa was run by the US until 1972 when its military consolidated land – often through forced expropriation – to build major bases such as Kadena Air Base and Camp Foster.

When Okinawa reverted to Japanese control, the US-Japan Security Treaty had come into force, and the bases stayed. Its location in the First Island Chain – close to Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, and the South China Sea – made it central to US Cold War strategy and later to operations in Korea, Vietnam, and the broader Indo‑Pacific.

Okinawa is just 0.6 per cent of Japan’s land area yet hosts about 75 per cent of US forces in Japan. While Tokyo and Washington view the island’s military bases as indispensable for regional security, many Okinawans regard them as a historical burden, a source of crime, noise, environmental damage, and a symbol of unequal treatment.

In the last decade, the All-Okinawa alliance that opposes the building of a new US Marine Corps base has dominated politics on the island. Governors have backed its push to reduce the US military footprint and All-Okinawa candidates held all the island’s seats in Japan’s Lower House. That is, until the February 8 election, when the Liberal Democratic Party swept up all four. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said “the sudden gust of the Takaichi whirlwind” explained the shock result.

That gust was part of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s dramatic reversal of the Liberal Democratic Party’s electoral fortunes. This could be a reset moment for Japan. Secure in the knowledge her party has secured legislative power unprecedented in postwar Japan, this singular political figure is set to be influential across Asia Pacific.

Japan remains one of the world’s biggest economies, but it has big challenges. The world has become used to a fading nation struggling to adjust its post-World War Two pacifist stance amid increasing security threats. A rapid turnover at the top has made it harder to build resilience to economic shocks, a shrinking and ageing population has led to labour shortages and fear of the future, and loose monetary policy has markets worried.

Takaichi, whom The Economist has named the world’s most powerful woman, wants to change all of that. The LDP vote on Okinawa may not last –  the anti-base movement has fractured, not failed –  but for now the island’s electoral about-face is indicative of a nation that is sold on the PM’s vision for a more assertive, militarily capable Japan.