Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s ‘Iron Maiden’ PM rises

[ad_1] When Japan’s first feminine prime minister staged a shock drum session with visiting South Korean President Lee Jae-myung final month, it created ripples throughout the Sea of Japan, marking a brand new rhythm in Tokyo’s diplomacy.

Carrying matching blue shirts, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Lee banged out Ok-pop hits because the cameras caught Japan’s 64-year-old chief bobbing her head to the beat with a face-splitting smile. Because the video clip went viral in each nations, worldwide information shops gushed a couple of new “drumstick diplomacy” turning right into a “cymbal of unity”.

Earlier than changing into prime minister in October, Takaichi was an everyday customer to Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours convicted conflict criminals together with 2.5 million conflict useless and is considered as a potent image of the nation’s militarist previous.

Greater than a decade in the past, when Takaichi’s political mentor, then prime minister Shinzo Abe, visited the shrine, it sparked livid reactions from China and South Korea, the place recollections of Japanese colonialism and Tokyo’s refusal to acknowledge the atrocities of the early twentieth century have left festering wounds.

Takaichi’s rise to the head of energy in a deeply patriarchal nation could have been enabled by Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister who was assassinated in 2022. However in type, if not substance, Takaichi as prime minister has taken issues extra cautiously. Since taking workplace, she has averted a go to to the Yasukuni Shrine.

That was earlier than she led her social gathering to a thumping supermajority victory in Sunday’s snap ballot. Together with her conservative Liberal Democratic Paty (LDP) sweeping greater than two-thirds of parliamentary seats within the decrease home, Takaichi now has the power to offer her hawkish instincts a free rein.

Learn extra Japan's Takaichi clinches supermajority with thumping election victory

Throughout an interview with Fuji Tv on Sunday, Takaichi mentioned she needed to create an atmosphere to permit a Yasukuni go to that may be understood by neighbouring nations.

However China, Japan’s largest buying and selling companion, is unlikely to be understanding. Barely two weeks after taking workplace in October, Takaichi ignited a diplomatic storm when she was requested in parliament about her place if China used navy pressure towards Taiwan. That will represent a “survival-threatening state of affairs” for Japan, Takaichi replied, breaking a practice for Tokyo, which is often extra circumspect on Taiwan points.

Her reply, which steered that Japan may intervene militarily if China sought to grab the self-ruled island, sparked a disagreement and big Chinese language navy workouts in December that had been aimed to showcase Beijing's skill to chop off Taiwan from outdoors help.

Takaichi is understood to be a China hawk, which has alarmed a few of Japan’s doves. The outcomes of Sunday’s vote, nonetheless, present that almost all of Japanese voters are prepared for a extra muscular overseas coverage to comprise Beijing’s territorial ambitions.

In Japan, Takaichi has a formidable status with monikers to match. An admirer of Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi can be well-known for having carried a number of drum sticks throughout her heavy-metal days, as she would break them throughout intense performances. When she turned Japan’s first feminine prime minister, headlines proclaimed the “Iron Maiden” had risen to “Iron Girl”.

It was an unlikely rise for the daughter of working-class dad and mom within the historical imperial capital of Nara.

Heavy steel and bikes Born in Nara on March 7, 1961, Takaichi was raised by conservative dad and mom who taught her prewar ethical values. Her mom was a police officer and her father labored at a equipment maker.

As a baby, she loved listening to her dad and mom recite an 1890 imperial doc praising paternalistic household values and loyalty to the federal government, Takaichi mentioned in 2012.

After graduating from highschool, she was accepted by various prestigious Tokyo universities, however she wasn’t allowed to enroll in any of the faculties within the capital. Her dad and mom made her attend Kobe College whereas dwelling at house, which was regular in these days for single daughters of conservative households.

In 1987, she received a sponsorship that enabled her to go to the US to work as congressional fellow for then Democratic congresswoman Pat Schroeder. Takaichi returned to Japan two years later with classes discovered by observing Schroeder, who was the primary feminine consultant elected from Colorado.

After returning to Japan from the US, a younger Takaichi labored as a tv persona, an writer and a critic.

“She has a really distinctive upbringing for a politician within the sense that she comes from a working-class household,” mentioned Kristi Govella from the Nissan Institute of Japanese Research in an interview with FRANCE 24. “She was a heavy steel drummer. She's an avid motorcyclist and she or he’s simply not within the mildew of the everyday LDP politician that many citizens have turn out to be fairly uninterested in lately. She has come onto the scene regardless of attainable doubts about her skill to steer as a result of she wasn’t an enormous determine on the nationwide scene. And he or she's actually made a splash.”

From heavy steel drummer to Japan's PM: a profile of Sanae Takaichi

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© FRANCE 24 ‘Little woman’ in ‘brief skirts’ However her rise within the patriarchal world of Japanese politics was not a straightforward one. Takaichi was first elected to parliament in 1993 after defying her dad and mom’ opposition. Some voters insulted her as “a little bit woman”, she mentioned in 2023, recalling her first marketing campaign.

“In these days, ladies who weren't thought of sufficiently old had been unwelcome,” she mentioned. She additionally confronted groundless allegations of being a mistress of a senior politician, and criticism – usually from ladies – for carrying heels, flashy jewelry and brief skirts.

“I'm who I'm,” Takaichi mentioned. “The one strategy to show myself is with the work I do.”

Her work ethic has generally been at odds with the nationwide temper. Takaichi’s vow, earlier than she took workplace in October, that she would “work, work, work, work, and work” drew criticism from psychological well being employees and several other strange Japanese in a rustic infamous for its lengthy working hours. Attorneys representing individuals who died from overwork described her feedback as unhelpful, and experiences of her calling conferences at 3am raised alarm bells about her well being in some quarters.

Responding to the criticisms, Takaichi mentioned her feedback had been misinterpreted. “I had no intention of encouraging individuals to overwork or suggesting that working lengthy hours is a advantage,” she mentioned, including she was merely attempting to speak her willpower to be an efficient chief.

Socially conservative, fiscally much less so Together with her brief, cropped hair and her ardour for heavy steel and bikes, it’s simple to view Takaichi as a daring non-conformist. However that will be a misjudgment, in keeping with Japan consultants.

Takaichi helps the imperial household’s male-only succession and opposes same-sex marriage in addition to amending the Nineteenth-century regulation requiring married {couples} to have the identical surname, underneath which most ladies are pressured into abandoning theirs.

“She tends to have fairly socially conservative views,” mentioned Govella. However the prime minister additionally has a political nostril for points that resonate with the voters. “The fascinating factor is that we've not heard loads of emphasis on that social conservatism. Since she's come to be prime minister, she appears to be attempting to weigh the totally different considerations of voters throughout points, and she or he appears to be precisely gauging that what voters actually need to see is a response on the financial facet, greater than her pushing ahead on any particular social points.”

Watch extra Japan's Iron Girl: What's going to Takaichi do along with her landslide win?

Takaichi could look as much as Thatcher, however financial insurance policies don't mirror these of the fiscally conservative former British chief. As an Abe protégé, Japan’s prime minister advocates boosting authorities spending whereas additionally selling a gross sales tax lower.

This alarms conservative economists, who warn that Japan should trim its nationwide debt.

However in terms of defence spending, Takaichi has an ally in US President Donald Trump, who welcomed her pledge to push Japan’s annual protection price range to double 2022 ranges – to 2 p.c of its gross home product – by March.

Takaichi is about to go to Washington to fulfill with Trump on the White Home on March 19. The US president introduced the journey on social media as he endorsed the prime minister forward of Sunday’s election.