{"id":10287120,"date":"2025-10-04T13:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T08:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/?post_type=article&p=10287120"},"modified":"2025-10-04T16:00:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T10:30:07","slug":"sanae-takaichi-japans-first-woman-prime-minister-10287120","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/sanae-takaichi-japans-first-woman-prime-minister-10287120\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultranationalist Abe prot\u00e9g\u00e9 set to be Japan\u2019s first woman PM: All about Sanae Takaichi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan\u2019s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader on Saturday (October 4), putting her on course to emulate her hero, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to become the country\u2019s first woman premier.<\/p><\/ev-engagement><\/ev-engagement>

\n

The conservative Takaichi, 64, came out on top in an internal party vote, beating the centrist Shinjiro Koizumi in a runoff election at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo. The lower house of Japan\u2019s parliament, known as the Diet, is expected to choose her as prime minister in a leadership vote in mid-October.<\/p>\n

Takaichi is set to replace incumbent Shigeru Ishiba less than a year after the latter entered office last year. Ishiba had announced his intent to resign last month<\/strong><\/a>, amid mounting pressure from within the LDP, which has lost its majority in both houses of the Diet.<\/p>\n

Making Japan great again…<\/h2>\n

Takaichi\u2019s win represents a victory for the right in the LDP, and a departure from the politics of the moderate Ishiba. For a party in crisis, this is being seen as a much needed pivot.<\/p>\n

As Takaichi herself alluded to in her victory speech on Saturday, \u201cRecently, I have heard harsh voices from across the country saying we don\u2019t know what the LDP stands for anymore or do you really understand how hard life is, and that the LDP\u2019s policies show no vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Takaichi definitely has a vision, although where that vision will take her \u2014 and Japan \u2014 remains to be seen. A prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, her politics combines ultranationalism and social conservatism with an aggressive fiscal stance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am determined to always put national interests first and lead the country with a sense of balance. Let us make the Japanese archipelago strong and prosperous, and pass it on to the next generation,\u201d she said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Unabashed ultranationalist<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Postwar politics in Japan was defined by pacifism borne out of the experiences of World War II. This was also a state policy, with Article 9 of Japan\u2019s constitution explicitly rejecting the state\u2019s right to wage war.<\/p>\n

The article reads: \u201cAspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation…land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained…\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the last two decades, amid an economic stagnation and a population crisis, ultranationalist currents, figures who embrace the actions of Imperial Japan instead of decrying them, have gained currency in the country. Abe, who served as prime minister for nearly nine years, from 2012 to 2020, represented this politics. Takaichi seeks to take this legacy forward.<\/p>\n