On the day of a snap winter election – one that would ultimately end in a landslide victory for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) – Takaichi Sanae stood alongside two men. With the help of Takashi Endo of Nippon Ishin – who is well known for his cross-party connections and served as an intermediary between Yoshimura and Takaichi – Yoshimura came to see Takaichi as a fellow reformer, while Takaichi, in turn, came to believe that they had more in common than she had initially thought. Despite Nippon Ishin lacking the electoral machine that Komeito had, Takaichi seems not to have forgotten the helping hand her new partner extended to her. Some observers have described Nippon Ishin as “Takaichi’s faction,” suggesting that it has effectively become her political power base outside the LDP. More broadly, the debate over Japan’s defense posture highlights the divide between Takaichi and her intra-party rivals.