Takaichi, likely to become Japan’s first female PM, is a rightwinger who has been critical of China and focused on migration in her campaign
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hen candidates for the leadership of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) were invited during a debate to say a few words in English, Sanae Takaichi kept her contribution brief. “Japan is back,” she declared. But her victory on Saturday also signals the arrival of different Japan: eight decades after the end of the second world war, the country is about to get its first female prime minister.
The 64-year-old rightwinger, who has cited Margaret Thatcher in her quest to build a “strong and prosperous” Japan, beat her centrist rival, Shinjiro Koizumi, in a runoff election at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo.
Unlike many of her recent predecessors, Takaichi is not assured of the prime minister’s job when parliament meets on 15 October. The LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, have lost their majorities in both houses of the Diet in the past year and will have to rely on opposition votes for Takaichi to be approved – although observers believe that is all but assured.
