Hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi makes history as Japan’s first female prime minister

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After weeks of political chaos and tense coalition negotiations, Japan’s Parliament on Tuesday voted to elect Sanae Takaichi as the East Asian country’s first female prime minister, smashing a glass ceiling in a country that lags behind most developed nations in terms of women’s representation.

Ms. Takaichi won the leadership of Japan‘s ruling Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month. But her rise to the premiership was thrown into doubt when the LDP’s long-term coalition partner, the centrist Komeito party, refused to join a government led by the conservative Ms. Takaichi, a protege of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and avowed admirer of Margaret Thatcher.

Without Komeito, the LDP was well short of a majority in the Japanese Diet, and it seemed for a moment opposition parties might be able to cobble together enough votes to push the LDP out of government for only the second time in Japan’s post-Second World War history. But Ms. Takaichi was able to secure the support of the small, right-wing Japan Innovation Party, without which an opposition bid for the premiership was impossible.

Even then, it was expected Ms. Takaichi might be forced to an embarrassing runoff Tuesday, but she was elected in the first round with 237 votes from the 465-seat chamber, demonstrating an ability to expand her cross-party support. This will be severely tested as she takes the helm of a minority government further weakened by the loss of Komeito’s seats – unlike that party, the JIP said it would not enter a formal coalition or confidence-and-supply arrangement with LDP, but would support government policies on a case-by-case basis.

The LDP has been beset by scandal since the 2022 assassination of former leader Mr. Abe – Japan’s longest-serving prime minister – exposed the party’s deep financial ties to the Unification Church, whom Mr. Abe’s killer blamed for stealing his mother’s money. This scandal was followed by the exposure of an illegal slush fund maintained by a conservative faction of the LDP previously led by Mr. Abe. Elections in 2024 and earlier this year saw the party lose its majority in both houses of parliament.

Ms. Takaichi is Japan’s fifth prime minister in as many years. Her predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, resigned in response to the LDP’s election losses after just over a year in the job, and many analysts have doubted any LDP leader’s ability to restore the party’s once-dominant role in Japanese politics, as it bleeds votes to both its left and right, particularly among younger people.

Even so, Ms. Takaichi’s election is a historic moment in a country where women are still severely marginalized. Japan ranked 118th out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s most recent global gender gap report, by far the lowest among G7 nations and 86 spots behind Canada.

Only 10 per cent of Mr. Ishiba’s outgoing cabinet was female, less even than the 16 per cent of seats held by women in the lower house of parliament. Women are also severely underrepresented in boardrooms and other prominent roles.

Commentary around Ms. Takaichi’s rise has often been sexist, focusing on her looks or suggesting without evidence that she is the “puppet” of older male party bosses, and at times in the past she has spoken about the difficulties of navigating a political system dominated by men.

But like Ms. Thatcher before her, Ms. Takaichi is seen by many more as an opponent of women’s rights than a potential champion. She has backed a long-standing law that requires married couples to have the same surname – which nearly always results in women adopting their husbands’ last names – and opposed efforts to change the law of imperial succession so Japan could one day have a female monarch.

After promising a level of representation in her cabinet on the level of Nordic countries – among the best in the world – Ms. Takaichi on Tuesday nominated just two women, the same number as Mr. Ishiba.

One of those was finance minister Satsuki Katayama, the first woman to ever hold that role.

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Ms. Takaichi has voiced support for a looser fiscal policy, reviving Mr. Abe’s policies of spending to boost a flagging economy. But further stimulus could drive down the already-weakened yen, while plans to cut some taxes could add to Japan’s deficit at a time when economic output is also falling.

Like Mr. Ishiba, Ms. Takaichi may find her premiership consumed by relations with the United States, once Japan’s most reliable partner, which has become a source of chaos and concern under President Donald Trump, who has targeted Japanese exports with heavy tariffs.

Ms. Takaichi’s diplomatic skills will be tested almost immediately: Mr. Trump arrives in Japan for an official two-day visit next week. After that both leaders are expected to attend the APEC summit in South Korea.

Both Seoul and Beijing said they looked forward to working with Japan’s new government Tuesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told reporters he hoped Tokyo will “honour its political commitments on major issues such as history” and “safeguard the political foundation of bilateral relations.”

Ms. Takaichi has pledged to boost defence spending and supported revising Japan’s pacifist constitution. In the past she has also paid several visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which houses the graves of multiple war criminals and is seen as a symbol of Imperial Japan’s colonial aggression by South Korea and China.

With reports from Alexandra Li in Beijing and Reuters