July 18, 1993. The 40th general election for the House of Representatives was held across Japan. That election became a watershed moment in postwar Japanese political history. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had held power for 38 years, lost its majority, and a coalition of eight parties led to the birth of the Morihiro Hosokawa (細川護熙) cabinet. The collapse of the 1955 System (55年体制). It was a year when the tectonic plates of Japanese politics shifted.

In the midst of that maelstrom, the ballot counting results for the Nara Prefecture-wide district were announced. Sanae Takaichi, Independent. First place. Elected.

To understand how this result was possible, one must first look at the state of Japan just before the 1993 election.

In June of that year, the political reform bills held by the LDP government were rejected in the Diet. Immediately following this, a motion of no confidence in the cabinet was submitted, and Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa (宮沢喜一) dissolved the House of Representatives. It was not just the opposition parties that voted in favor of the no-confidence motion. Thirty-nine members of the LDP also joined the vote of no confidence. They were a group led by Ichiro Ozawa (小沢一郎) and Tsutomu Hata (羽田孜). They soon left the LDP to form the Japan Renewal Party (Shinseito). Another group, centered around Masayoshi Takemura (武村正義), founded New Party Sakigake (Shinto Sakigake).

The political landscape became unprecedentedly complex. The '1955 System,' in which the established LDP and the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) formed the two main pillars, was collapsing from within. The election was held amidst this chaos. The LDP still won the most seats but fell short of a majority with 223 seats. A coalition government became unavoidable, and the partners for that coalition were parties other than the LDP.

The Nara Prefecture-wide district was a multi-member constituency that elected five representatives under the system at the time. Candidates from the LDP, the JSP, the Komeito, and the newly formed Shinseito and Sakigake competed against one another. In that arena, a 32-year-old independent woman with no organization, no funding, and no party backing received the most votes.

How was this possible?

The first part of the answer was name recognition—a face built through television appearances. As a morning program anchor and current affairs commentator, the name 'Sanae Takaichi' was not unfamiliar to the voters of Nara. Even if she wasn't an object of adoration, she was a face they had seen on their screens. The difference between a candidate met for the first time during a campaign and a face one already knows is by no means small.

The second part was legwork. She had been touring the constituency since before the election. Village festivals, local gatherings, shopping districts. She shook hands, greeted people, and remembered names. She literally carried out the advice her father had written in a letter: "Do not forget the handshake and the bow." While candidates with established organizations relied on those structures, she ran on her own two feet.

The third part was the unique conditions of 1993. In a situation where established parties were simultaneously faltering, a fresh face who was not a candidate of an established party could actually be at an advantage. Voters wanted political reform, and a new independent female candidate fit that sentiment. "If you want change, vote for someone unrelated to the organizations." This sentiment was reflected in the counting results.

When the count was finished, Takaichi recorded the highest number of votes in the Nara Prefecture-wide district, surpassing all LDP incumbents, JSP candidates, and new party candidates. A 32-year-old independent newcomer had come in first place within the five-seat quota.

It may have taken time for the reality of the victory to sink in. One can only imagine the joy of those gathered at the campaign office on the night the results were confirmed. It was a night when a handmade election campaign, built without organization or funding, bore fruit.

However, reality followed immediately after the joy.

Pressure for political choices flooded in immediately after her election. It was New Party Sakigake. Before the election, Sakigake had approached Takaichi about applying for their endorsement. Takaichi applied, but Sakigake rejected her. The reason has never been made public. It was likely a judgment that Takaichi did not fully align with Sakigake’s platform, or perhaps there were other political calculations.

She went ahead with her candidacy even after being denied the endorsement, and she won. After her election, Sakigake approached Takaichi again, this time inviting her to join. Absorbing an elected member was helpful for the new party in its early stages to increase its seat count.

Takaichi did not accept Sakigake’s invitation to join. The reason can be inferred from statements she made later. Sakigake reportedly demanded that she vote for a specific candidate in the prime ministerial designation vote as a condition for joining. Specifically, it was pressure to vote for Morihiro Hosokawa, the candidate put forward by the coalition parties.

Takaichi rejected that condition.

In August 1993, the prime ministerial designation vote was held in the Diet. Takaichi cast her vote for Yohei Kono (河野洋平), the president of the LDP. An independent freshman representative casting a vote for the president of the now-opposition LDP—it was a choice that could have seemed irrational. Why vote for the LDP president when the LDP was not going to take power anyway?

The reasons are interpreted in several ways. One was ideological affinity; Takaichi held conservative values. She likely felt closer to the LDP’s conservative platform than to the direction of political reform pursued by Sakigake. Another reason was an expression of independence. Having rejected Sakigake’s conditional support, it was consistent for her to vote as she saw fit. It was a principle of not yielding to group pressure.

As a result, Hosokawa became the Prime Minister, and the LDP became the opposition party. The vote Takaichi cast for Yohei Kono did not change the outcome. However, that act of voting was the first public signal of what kind of politician Takaichi was: someone who puts her own judgment ahead of external pressure.

The reality for a freshman representative was harsh. She was an independent member who belonged to neither the LDP, the JSP, nor any faction of the ruling coalition. Committee assignments within the Diet were limited, and she was outside the networks that shared information. She had to study alone in her office in the Members' Office Building, collect data alone, and make decisions alone.

It was a time to learn the practical meaning of being a member of the Diet for the first time. The work of a representative is entirely different from an election campaign. One must review bills, understand budget proposals, and question bureaucrats in committees. One must understand how the bureaucratic organization works and learn the tricks of legislative activity from senior members. Yet, Takaichi had no faction, no senior members, and no party support.

Amidst these difficulties, a crossroads of choice approached: whether to continue as an independent or to join a political party. The mid-1990s was a period when Japanese political parties repeatedly split and merged. The Shinseito, the Komeito, and the Democratic Socialist Party merged to form the New Frontier Party (Shinshinto). Takaichi walked her own path through this maelstrom of change.

Ultimately, she participated in the founding of the Liberal Party (Jiyu-to) in 1994, and subsequently joined the founding of the New Frontier Party (Shinshinto) at the end of 1994. Political survival took precedence over her initial conviction of independence. There was too little she could do alone. However, even within the New Frontier Party, she maintained her own distinct character.

It is necessary to re-examine the historical significance of her 1993 election.

The method of the victory is more important than the fact of the election itself. To be elected with the most votes without being a hereditary politician, without a support group (koenkai), and without a party nomination—such cases are extremely rare in Japanese politics. Most new representatives are elected through organized campaigns after receiving a party nomination, or they inherit a local base because their parents or relatives were representatives. Takaichi had neither.

That starting point defined her subsequent political style: independent judgment, an attitude of not easily yielding to group logic, and an adherence to principles that sometimes seemed stubborn. The roots of all this lay in the Nara Prefecture ballot counting center in 1993.

July 18, 1993, is recorded in history as a turning point for modern Japanese politics. The day the 1955 System ended. The day 38 years of LDP rule came to a close. And on that day, a 32-year-old woman with neither organization nor party entered the Diet as the top vote-getter in Nara.

Who would have remembered that name at the time? Ichiro Ozawa’s name filled the pages, and the collapse of the 1955 System was the talk of the town. Sanae Takaichi was just one of dozens of freshman representatives. However, that record of being the top vote-getter that day became the basis of the pride she would draw upon whenever she navigated political adversity for decades to come.

She did not have the "constituency, name recognition, and funding" (Jiban, Kanban, Kaban) that hereditary politicians bring as a matter of course. That is why it took longer, and that is why she did not give up. As long as the memory of winning alone in the beginning remained at her foundation, no adversity was heavier than the weight of that first election.

Decades after the 1993 election, looking back at the names of the peers who were elected as freshmen that same year makes the historical significance of that election even clearer. Among the freshman representatives of the 1993 election, several future Japanese Prime Ministers emerged: Yoshihiko Noda, Naoto Kan, Shinzo Abe, Fumio Kishida, and Sanae Takaichi. Major figures in modern Japanese politics entered the Diet in the same year, in the same election. This is why that election holds special meaning.

Takaichi’s age at the time of her election was 32. It took another 32 years for her to become Japan's first female Prime Minister. The story of those 32 years fills the rest of this book: the quagmire of electoral defeat, her return as an "assassin" candidate, joining the cabinet, serving as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, becoming the LDP Policy Research Council Chair, and three challenges for the party presidency. The start of that long path was the numbers that came out of the Nara counting station on July 18, 1993. Sanae Takaichi, First Place.

She fought without an organization and won. That fact shaped the Takaichi who followed: a tendency to put her own judgment ahead of party logic, an instinctive distance from hereditary and connection-based politics, and an obsession with speaking directly to voters. All of it is rooted in the election for the Nara Prefecture-wide district in July 1993.