FOCUS: Lack of moderate voices around Japan PM Takaichi sparks concern

TOKYO - With Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on Japan's potential involvement in a Taiwan emergency sparking tensions with China, concern is mounting that the absence of moderate voices around her could allow her hardline tendencies to go largely unchecked.

With senior moderates within her party and a centrist coalition partner drifting away from the hawkish Takaichi, doubts are also growing over her ability to steer diplomacy beyond China, as well as coordinate economic and social policies.