TOKYO: Moments into the first stump speech of her election campaign, Sanae Takaichi asked voters to imagine her dyeing her hair - a procedure that Japan’s 104th prime minister said she performed herself. It’s the Big One: the cataclysmic earthquake that Tokyo has long dreaded. The reference to quake-interrupted hair dyeing led smoothly into an impassioned pledge for significantly greater earthquake readiness. The election is a mighty gamble on Takaichi’s personal popularity, her ability to present herself as a force for real change and capacity to win the nation over very quickly. She has a lot of Japan to convince that a vote for the uninspiring local Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) candidate in their constituency is reliably a vote for her dynamic premiership.