Former prime minister of Japan, one of Abe Shinzo's successors. In December 2022 he promoted a strategic review that bucked post-war conventions about how much Japan should invest in its security and what kind of capabilities it should have. He established a new command structure for the Self-Defence Forces to ensure better co-ordination between its branches and with American forces.
His administration partially revised longstanding restrictions on arms exports, though limitations remained tight enough for Japan's joint fighter-jet programme with Britain and Italy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' frigate contract with Australia, to require clunky legal workarounds.
He called the success of the overhauled NISA tax-free investing scheme a "turning point" and a test of whether Japan could leave behind its deflationary past.
Virtue is its own punishment.