In her expected capacity as prime minister, Sanae Takaichi will likely pour her efforts into realizing a long-cherished goal of hard-line conservatives: enacting an anti-espionage law to bolster Japan’s security.

Even after she was defeated by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in last year’s Liberal Democratic Party leadership race and left out of the Cabinet, Takaichi formulated LDP policies aimed at strengthening the state’s security capabilities.

In May, she visited the prime minister’s office and presented Ishiba a set of policy proposals she compiled in her capacity as chair of the LDP’s research commission on public safety, counterterrorism and cybercrime measures.

The centerpiece was the introduction of a law to crack down on espionage activities by foreign powers.

In 1985, the LDP submitted a state secrets bill to the Diet that threatened to criminalize news gathering and reporting by media outlets concerning national secrets related to defense and diplomacy. Even everyday activities of ordinary citizens could be considered illegal under the proposed law.

The bill recommended severe penalties, including death sentences, for offenders.

The legislation was ultimately scrapped amid concerns that it could infringe on individuals’ freedom of thought and belief. But since then, right-wingers have pushed for an anti-espionage law.

The recommendations compiled by Takaichi’s commission noted that “threats to our country’s public safety are rising by the day” and called for advancing discussions toward the introduction of an anti-espionage law “on par with those of other countries.”

After her meeting with Ishiba, Takaichi stressed the need for comprehensive legislation.

“Other countries can capture foreign spies for spy exchanges, for example, but Japan lacks such mechanisms,” she told reporters.

The recommendations were incorporated into the LDP’s campaign pledges for the Upper House election in July, and they became some of Takaichi’s planks in the LDP presidential election.

In the LDP executive lineup inaugurated on Oct. 7, Takaichi appointed Takayuki Kobayashi, former minister in charge of economic security, whose hawkish views match her own, as chair of the Policy Research Council.

“She has created a setup in which the party side can force the government’s hand on issues such as an anti-espionage law,” a source close to Takaichi said.

With opposition parties such as the Democratic Party for the People, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) and Sanseito also beginning to move toward establishing an anti-espionage law, conditions are becoming conducive to talks between the ruling and opposition camps.

If the push to enact such legislation gains momentum, it is certain to spark a national debate.

Even so, Takaichi appears determined to pursue its introduction, driven by her belief that the state’s primary role is to “defend the nation’s sovereignty and honor.”

The issue extends beyond anti-espionage legislation. Attention is focused more broadly on how Takaichi will seek to wield state power when she becomes the nation’s leader.

In 2016, when she was communications minister under the second Abe administration, Takaichi mentioned the possibility of using Article 76 of the Radio Law to suspend a broadcaster deemed to have repeatedly aired programming lacking political fairness.

Even members of the ruling coalition called for a more cautious approach because the issue is closely tied to freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution.

Moreover, Takaichi’s words and deeds have shown a disquieting willingness to strengthen state authority even if it means partially restricting individual rights.

In a debate during the LDP presidential election in 2021, she said she was “personally very interested” in the constitutional concept of “public welfare,” which can serve as a basis for restricting freedoms and human rights.

Arguing that the term public welfare is “half-baked and incomprehensible,” Takaichi proposed amending the wording to “public interest and public order.”

She said she wants to “make it clear” that a certain degree of restrictions can be imposed on freedoms and rights in situations such as national emergencies.

Takaichi has also voiced frustrations with the postwar Constitution in a co-authored book.

“In the legislative process, I have many times run up against the wall of constraints imposed by the current Constitution,” she wrote in “Hatoha no Uso” (Lies of doves).