What's the link between the US and Japanese politics? episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 16, 2026 · 6 MIN

What's the link between the US and Japanese politics?

from History Behind the Headlines: Briefing · host History Extra

Japan's first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, achieved a landslide election victory last week – as rumours swirled online that the CIA had been predicting that outcome before the polls even closed. Whatever the truth of those claims, it's not the first time that potential connections have been drawn between the American intelligence agency and Japanese politics.In this episode of HistoryExtra’s series History Behind the Headlines: Briefing, Chris Harding from the University of Edinburgh investigates the interplay between America and Japanese politics since the depths of the Cold War. ----- GO BEYOND THE PODCAST  For further historical analysis of the latest breaking news, don't miss HistoryExtra's History Behind the Headlines podcast: https://play.megaphone.fm/vv4s-xn6tfmntfojkacmna And if you’ve enjoyed this episode, why not become a member of HistoryExtra for access to thousands of ad-free podcasts, hundreds of hours of video and a huge archive of articles from leading historians: https://www.historyextra.com/subscribe/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 16, 2026

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