Granted, Koike poses a serious threat in another direction too, and that is to Article Nine of the Constitution and liberal politics in general. Despite a few pseudo-progressive elements, Koike is undoubtedly a hard right politician, not very different in outlook from Shinzo Abe. She is a more modern conservative—without Abe’s hangups about his family history or rewriting the war—but she has already shown alarming flashes of racism toward resident Koreans and is no less hawkish than the incumbent.