Japan’s embattled ruling party now has a new leader, Sanae Takaichi, a hardline conservative, who is poised to become the country’s first female prime minister.
Her victory in the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership election came after she secured a majority in a runoff vote against Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.
The 85-year-old Taro Aso, the LDP’s most powerful kingmaker and a former prime minister, backed Takaichi and reportedly influenced Saturday’s party vote in her favor.
Takaichi is now expected to appoint Aso, a political ally of the assassinated ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as the deputy prime minister.
Japan’s ruling party’s popularity takes a hit
LDP members hope to see Takaichi halt the decline of a party that has ruled Japan for almost all of the post-World War II era.
Under the previous party leader and current Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the ruling LDP lost its majority in both houses of parliament due to growing public dissatisfaction with a declining standard of living and rising immigration.
Ishiba’s predecessor Fumio Kishida, also from the LDP, stumbled over a donation scandal that reinforced the public’s impression that the LDP did not care enough about the people.
After Takaichi’s victory, the new LDP leader pledged to rebuild the party by mobilizing all generations of the Japanese people.
The vote expected to confirm her as prime minister is scheduled for October 15.
Political heir to Shinzo Abe
Takaichi has had multiple tenures as a Cabinet minister, including her stints as interior minister and minister of economic security. The 64-year-old sees herself as the political heir to Shinzo Abe, who won six consecutive elections thanks to his nationalist agenda and growth-oriented economic policies. She is expected to carry on with his market-friendly policies and his traditionalist vision for the country.
Takaichi also admires Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, and views herself as Japan’s “Iron Lady.”
But her hardline conservative stances have also drawn sharp criticism from her opponents, with former Premier Kishida allegedly even referring to her as “Taliban Takaichi.”
She is a wartime history revisionist and China hawk. She also regularly visits Yasukuni Shrine, which Japan’s neighbors consider a symbol of militarism, though she has declined to say if she would continue to do so as prime minister.
In a column on her website published in 2004, Takaichi justified Japan’s role in World War II, saying that Tokyo was “waging a defensive war.”
She called for the burning of the Japanese flag to be made a criminal offense with prison sentences.
As interior minister under then-Prime Minister Abe, she threatened television stations with the revocation of their licenses if they did not toe the government line.
Like Abe, she wants to lead Japan “back to the top” by boosting its economic growth. Japan, with its 124 million people, is currently the fourth-largest economy in the world behind the US, China, and Germany.
Controversial stances
Takaichi has stuck with old-fashioned views on women and gender equality, stances favored by male party heavyweights.
She supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, sees equal pay for men and women as a threat to traditional family values, and supports a 19th-century civil law on female surnames that many see as outdated.
In Japan, married couples are required by law to choose a surname, and it is an unwritten rule that the woman takes her husband’s surname. Takaichi spoke out against the reform that would allow couples to keep their old names after marriage.
Recently, she has also called for tougher policies on immigration, which became a major issue in the race amid the rise of anti-immigrant Sanseito party in Japanese politics.
Echoing Sanseito’s warnings about foreigners, Takaichi kicked off her first official campaign speech with an anecdote about tourists reportedly kicking sacred deer in her hometown of Nara, without providing evidence.
Furthermore, Takaichi promised to clamp down on rule-breaking visitors and immigrants, amid a relative spike of newcomers in the traditionally homogeneous Japan.
Pragmatic governance or iron fist?
The new leader is now expected to reverse the decline in LDP’s popularity by courting the voters of ring-wing populist parties like Sanseito. At the same time, Takaichi seems to already be making concessions in order to cement her power within her own party.
Even before her election, she positioned herself as a “center-right conservative” in a bid to win over LDP moderates. And after her victory, she struck a pragmatic tone that could be seen as an effort to keep her current liberal coalition partner Komeito without alienating potential new supporters of her government.
Takaichi has also agreed with the opposition that abolishing a 50-year-old gasoline tax was a priority to tackle inflation. She has called for a stronger military, emphasizing the importance of the trilateral alliance with the US and South Korea, allaying concerns that the recently repaired relations with Seoul could deteriorate again due to her nationalist stances.
In another signal abroad, Takaichi said she will honor the tariffs and investment agreements between the government of the current prime minister, Ishiba, and US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Is she a typical ultraconservative?
Not all aspects of Takaichi’s life fit into her image as an uncompromising conservative.
During her student days, she was a drummer in a heavy-metal band and a motorbike rider.
A graduate of Kobe University with a degree in business management, Takaichi took part in a fellowship program in 1987 which allowed her to work in the US Congress.
She also hosted programs on the liberal TV station Asahi.
The incoming prime minister recently spoke candidly about her struggles with menopausal symptoms and stressed the need to educate men about female health to help women at school and work.
Takaichi has no children of her own and did not marry until the age of 43, when she wed LDP member Taku Yamamoto, whose three children she adopted.
The couple divorced in 2017 due to differing political views, but remarried in December 2021. During their first marriage, Takaichi took her husband’s surname. However, after they divorced and then remarried in 2021, her husband took hers, becoming Taku Takaichi. In this way, Japan’s new “Iron Lady” managed to stick with her worldview of a shared family name without sacrificing the power balance in her marriage.
This article was originally written in German.
