<figure id="attachment_3199577" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3199577" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3199577 size-full" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/b7613c12-donald-trump-sanae-takaichi-epa-images-pic-031125-1.webp" alt="" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3199577" class="wp-caption-text">US President Donald Trump offered his &#8216;complete and total endorsement&#8217; of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ahead of weekend snap elections. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
WASHINGTON: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will visit the White House on March 19, President Donald Trump said Thursday, praising the Asian country&#8217;s first woman leader ahead of weekend snap elections she is expected to win.
Takaichi &#8220;has already proven to be a strong, powerful, and wise Leader, and one that truly loves her Country,&#8221; Trump said in a post on Truth Social as he announced her visit next month.
The US and Japan have been working to strike a &#8220;very substantial&#8221; deal on trade, as well as collaborating on national security, Trump said, offering his &#8220;Complete and Total Endorsement.&#8221;
&#8220;Prime Minister Takaichi is someone who deserves powerful recognition for the job she and her Coalition are doing,&#8221; he added.
Polls point to a resounding win in Sunday&#8217;s elections for Takaichi&#8217;s conservatives after a honeymoon start.
Takaichi, 64, a heavy metal drummer in her youth and an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, became Japan&#8217;s fifth premier in as many years in October.
She inherited a moribund Liberal Democratic Party deserted en masse by voters in part because of inflation and a recent slush fund scandal.
Despite her ultraconservative policies, Takaichi boasts overwhelming support among young people, in a country where politics has long been determined by the aging vote.

MatchPoint Times

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