For the first time in Japanese history, the country gets a female leader. Sanae Takaichi (64) was today voted president of the ruling liberal-democratic party (LDP) and will be officially sworn in as Prime Minister later this month.
However, the first female prime minister of Japan will not stand for change. Takaichi is the political heiress of the conservative populist, and longest sitting Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe (1954–2022). With her arrival, his nationalist agenda returns to the top.
Before Takaichi went into politics, she worked as a television presenter. In that role she was known for her controlled but pronounced style: she speaks in one -liners, sees a lot in black and white, and is sharp in front of the camera. This media skills, unlike many party members, gives her a recognizable face with the public. She therefore owes her election profit to a large extent to the broad support of ordinary party members, of whom more than 40 percent voted for her.
Persistence
But it is also the result of perseverance within a party that rarely offers room for women. “I throw the term” work-life balance “in the trash,” she said on Saturday during her victory speech.
Takaichi worked up as Minister of the Interior and later of Economic Security. Here she emphasized limiting migration, the protection of strategic technology, control of foreign investments and more attention to defense.
She believes that Japan no longer has to apologize for his war history and calls earlier apologies ‘self -enforcing’. Her repeated visits to the Yasukuni shrine, where war criminals are also commemorated, give her fierce criticism from China and South Korea. These themes make her a fixed value in the conservative wing of the party and at the same time controversial in moderates.
No gender equality
She also evokes division inland. Takaichi opposes various surnames for married couples, and she called same -sex marriage a threat to the foundations of society. Such views make her remotely from the younger generation where there is broad support for change. Also within her party, female colleagues see her primarily as a supporter of preserving the old political order.
In her victory speech, she was determined. “The LDP must change,” she said. “Is political of people, for people.” She promised lower prices, better care and a strong economy. A familiar row that rarely became concrete among its predecessors.
Her success therefore reflects the state of the LDP. Despite years of scandals, election losses and crumbling trust, the party again opts for certainty over renewal. The irony of Takaichi’s breakthrough is therefore that she is the first female prime minister not to break through the boundaries of the Japanese system, but again confirms it.
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