Japan poised to get first woman prime minister

Japanese prime minister-elect Sanae Takaichi

Takaichi's 'views on women’s rights are complicated'

(Image credit: Yuichi Yamazaki / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party elected former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, a hard-line conservative, as its new leader, putting her on track to become the country’s first woman prime minister later this month. Takaichi, an acolyte of the late former leader Shinzo Abe and admirer of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, beat out four male rivals in the second round of voting in Saturday’s leadership election.

Who said what

Takaichi’s rise “reflects an eagerness for change” in the LDP after a series of losses put her party in the “unusual position of being a minority in both houses of parliament,” The New York Times said. But while she is on the cusp of breaking a major gender barrier, her “own views on women’s rights are complicated.” Takaichi “opposes same-sex marriage and allowing married couples to have separate surnames, an issue that has broad public support in Japan,” Reuters said. But as a “drummer and a fan of heavy metal,” she is “no stranger to creating noise.”

Takaichi “will have to contend with a sluggish economy,” inflation and slow wage growth, the BBC said, and “navigate a challenging U.S.-Japan relationship,” starting with a potential summit with President Donald Trump later this month. But first she “faces an immediate hurdle,” the Times said: She must win enough votes in parliament to become prime minister.

What next?

The LDP needs to add another party to its minority government, The Associated Press said, but Takaichi’s “ultra-conservative politics,” especially her hawkish “revisionism of wartime history and regular visits” to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, have put her “on the verge of losing her party’s long-time coalition partner, the Buddhist-backed dovish centrist Komeito.”

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.