The Liberal Democratic Party’s new president, Sanae Takaichi, is often compared to Margaret Thatcher, the iconic British prime minister. It’s intended to be a flattering comparison, but the analogy doesn’t work. Japan today is not Britain in the 1980s, the LDP is not Thatcher’s Conservative Party and Takaichi’s success depends on her being pragmatic, not dogmatic. “The Iron Lady” is neither the best comparison nor a good role model. Takaichi prevailed in the LDP election because she invoked the