Who's Sanae Takaichi, Japan's first feminine prime minister? : NPR

Japan's new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, pictured after winning her party's leadership election in early October.

Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi has labored in politics since 1993 and spent a few years within the late Shinzo Abe’s administration.

Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool/Getty Photographs

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Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool/Getty Photographs

Japan’s first-ever female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is an ultraconservative with a standard view of gender roles and a penchant for heavy steel music.

Japan’s parliament elected Takaichi on Tuesday, a number of weeks after she was chosen to lead the conservative Liberal Democratic Social gathering (LDP), which has spent a lot of the final seven a long time in energy. The LDP is seen as shifting additional to the appropriate: It was solely capable of elect Takaichi by forming an alliance with a right-wing populist celebration, after dropping its longtime coalition companion earlier this month.

Takaichi, 64, is “one of the vital conservative folks in Japan’s conservative LDP,” explains Jeffrey Corridor, a lecturer at Kanda College of Worldwide Research in Japan.

Lawmakers applaud as Sanae Takaichi, standing, was elected as Japan's new prime minister during the extraordinary session of the lower house, in Tokyo, Oct. 21, 2025.

She has advocated for more durable immigration restrictions and embraced hawkish insurance policies on China. She has drawn comparisons to the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for whom she has steadily expressed her admiration and infrequently wears blue fits in tribute.

However she additionally performed drums in a band in faculty, cites Deep Purple and Iron Maiden as a few of her favourite bands, as soon as belted a rock anthem on nationwide TV and seems to take care of a powerful affinity for motorcycles and cars.

“These are a part of the character that’s promoted by her, that [she is] extra than simply the robust Iron Girl, but in addition anyone who can have some enjoyable,” Corridor says.

This is what else to find out about Japan’s new chief.

Sanae Takaichi bows as she was elected Japan's new prime minister during a parliament session in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday.

Sanae Takaichi bows as she was elected Japan’s new prime minister throughout a parliament session in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Eugene Hoshiko/AP

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Eugene Hoshiko/AP

1. She is not from a political household

Takaichi was born and raised within the central Japanese prefecture of Nara. Her dad labored for an automotive agency, whereas her mother labored for the native police division.

“Not like most or most of the politicians in her celebration who turned prime ministers, she got here from slightly modest means,” Corridor says. “However she did examine very exhausting when she was younger, and she or he handed the doorway exams for some very elite personal universities in Japan.”

However he stated Takaichi’s mother and father refused to pay for her tuition to an elite college, preferring that she attend a two-year faculty to economize and reside nearer to house. She ended up attending Kobe College, a prestigious nationwide college, paying her personal approach by means of part-time jobs and making the six-hour round-trip commute from her mother and father’ home.

In 1987, Takaichi moved to the U.S. to work as a congressional fellow within the workplace of Rep. Pat Schroeder, a Democrat from Colorado — regardless of her personal conservative leanings, Corridor notes. After returning to Japan, she was capable of market herself as an knowledgeable in worldwide politics and safe a job as a tv presenter.

“And from there, she segued away from being a TV character right into a politician, which is a typical path in Japan,” Corridor says. “In case you’re well-known on TV, you could have a reasonably good probability of successful elections.”

2. She’s spent a long time in politics

Takaichi was first elected to parliament in 1993, representing her hometown of Nara as an impartial.

She joined the LDP three years later and went on to serve in quite a few key authorities positions, together with minister of financial safety.

Notably, she served because the minister of worldwide communications — which is liable for telecommunications coverage and broadcast media rules — underneath the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, from 2014 to 2017 and once more from 2019 to 2020.

Shinzo Abe, killed at 67, leaves a storied legacy as Japan's longest-serving premier

“She served in that, I feel, longer than every other politician has ever served, as a result of the Abe administration was a really lengthy administration and he valued her competency,” Corridor says.

Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, holding workplace from 2006 to 2007 and 2012 to 2020, earlier than his assassination in 2022. He was identified for his efforts to revitalize Japan’s financial system — nicknamed “Abenomics” — and rebuild its function on the worldwide stage.

Takaichi “positively depicts herself because the successor to Abe’s conservative legacy,” Corridor says, noting that she did get his endorsement within the celebration’s 2021 management election.

“I am unsure how shut associates they had been, however they positively had been on the identical web page ideologically when it got here to points like China and the revisionist view of World Conflict II that most of the ultra-conservatives in Japan have,” he stated.

Takaichi looks on as incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media in Tokyo in December 2012.

Takaichi appears on as incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media in Tokyo in 2012.

Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP through Getty Photographs

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Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP through Getty Photographs

3. Her views have prompted controversy

Takaichi subscribes to trendy financial idea, “which says which you could have interaction in deficit spending on necessary issues like protection and different elements of the price range,” Corridor says.

Whereas she will not be as historically fiscally conservative as others in her celebration, he says, she is extraordinarily conservative on social points. For example, she needs to create applications to advertise having kids and does not assume ladies ought to be allowed to maintain their maiden names after marriage (regardless that she has used hers in skilled and public life).

Newly-elected leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Sanae Takaichi celebrates after winning the LDP leadership election in Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday.

She additionally has what Corridor describes as hardline views on Japan’s WWII historical past. In remarks over time, she has downplayed Japan’s aggression throughout the struggle and criticized the war crimes trials that the Allies held afterward to convict Japan’s wartime leaders.

Takaichi can also be identified to recurrently go to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, the place the convicted struggle criminals are buried and glorified. However she noticeably abstained from visiting throughout final week’s autumn pageant, sending a ritual providing as an alternative.

Takaichi has additionally courted controversy along with her disdain for immigrants and even vacationers, a rapidly growing industry in Japan. Whereas campaigning, she cited unconfirmed stories of vacationers kicking sacred deer in Nara Park, half of a bigger criticism of tourism that many noticed as xenophobic.

“It additionally ties right into a common dislike of international folks and in addition immigrants who reside within the nation,” Corridor says.

She has advocated for an anti-espionage law, suggesting that Chinese language residents of Japan may very well be potential spies for China’s authorities. Throughout her marketing campaign, she called for restrictions on non-Japanese folks shopping for property in Japan and a crackdown on unlawful immigration.

“People who find themselves very anti-immigration are form of smiling on her turning into prime minister, anticipating that she’s going to do one thing about it,” Corridor says, including he thinks that’s unlikely due to stress from Japanese companies who depend on immigration within the face of significant labor shortages.

4. She’s not essentially a feminist

Takaichi holds a notable place within the historical past books as the primary feminine prime minister of a rustic the place ladies solely held about 10% of seats in parliament as of 2024.

Japan, the world’s fourth largest financial system, ranked 118th out of 148 international locations when it comes to gender equality — the bottom of any Group of Seven nation — in keeping with the World Financial Discussion board (WEF)’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report.

Nonetheless, Takaichi seems unlikely to prioritize problems with gender equality. She has lengthy advocated for conventional gender roles, opposes same-sex marriage and helps male-only succession to the Japanese throne.

“This isn’t going to be a interval when ladies’s equality or different gender points are aggressively superior,” Corridor says. “However there’s, I assume, some profit to having a lady because the chief of your nation, to indicate … younger ladies that sooner or later they may turn out to be prime minister, too.”

Takaichi has spoken about ladies’s rights, particularly advocating for the expansion of hospital providers for girls’s well being and opening up about her personal struggles with menopause signs.

Takaichi has additionally spoken about her struggles to conceive; She has no organic kids, however is a stepmother to a few youngsters — and grandmother to 4 — from her husband’s earlier marriage. (She is married to former member of parliament and fellow LDP member Taku Yamamoto, who legally took her final identify, a relative rarity in Japan.)

Takaichi had promised on the marketing campaign path to extend the variety of ladies in her cupboard to “Nordic levels,” or closer to 50%. However within the hours after taking workplace, she appointed only two.