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

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

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

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

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 incessantly expressed her admiration and sometimes wears blue fits in tribute.

However she additionally performed drums in a band in school, 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 bikes and vehicles.

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

Here is what else to learn about Japan’s new chief.

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.

“In contrast to most or lots of the politicians in her celebration who grew to become prime ministers, she got here from quite modest means,” Corridor says. “However she did research very onerous when she was younger, and she or he handed the doorway exams for some very elite personal universities in Japan.”

However he mentioned Takaichi’s dad and mom refused to pay for her tuition to an elite college, preferring that she attend a two-year school to save cash and dwell nearer to residence. She ended up attending Kobe College, a prestigious nationwide college, paying her personal manner by means of part-time jobs and making the six-hour round-trip commute from her dad and mom’ 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 in a position to 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 standard path in Japan,” Corridor says. “For those who’re well-known on TV, you’ve gotten a fairly good probability of profitable elections.”

2. She’s spent many years 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 plenty of 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.

“She served in that, I believe, 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 economic 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 pals 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 Battle II that lots of the ultra-conservatives in Japan have,” he mentioned.

3. Her views have induced controversy

Takaichi subscribes to fashionable financial concept, “which says that you would be able to interact in deficit spending on essential issues like protection and different components of the price range,” Corridor says.

Whereas she just isn’t as historically fiscally conservative as others in her celebration, he says, she is extraordinarily conservative on social points. As an example, she needs to create packages to advertise having kids and does not assume ladies must be allowed to maintain their maiden names after marriage (despite the fact that she has used hers in skilled and public life).

She additionally has what Corridor describes as hardline views on Japan’s WWII historical past. In remarks through the years, she has downplayed Japan’s aggression throughout the warfare and criticized the warfare 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 warfare 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 quickly rising business in Japan. Whereas campaigning, she cited unconfirmed experiences 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 basic dislike of international individuals and in addition immigrants who dwell within the nation,” Corridor says.

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

“People who find themselves very anti-immigration are type of smiling on her changing 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 vital 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 economic system, ranked 118th out of 148 international locations when it comes to gender equality — the bottom of any Group of Seven nation — in accordance with the World Financial Discussion board (WEF)’s 2025 World Gender Hole 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 may be, I assume, some profit to having a girl because the chief of your nation, to indicate … younger ladies that sooner or later they may change into prime minister, too.”

Takaichi has spoken about ladies’s rights, particularly advocating for the growth 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 children — 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 title, a relative rarity in Japan.)

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

Corridor says Takaichi has needed to be extra conservative than her male colleagues with a view to take the helm of the celebration. Whereas she and her function mannequin Margaret Thatcher differ of their approaches to fiscal coverage, he says each are conservative, hawkish and “don’t wish to be seen as weak.”

“She possibly, in a manner, has modeled her rise on Margaret Thatcher by being this very sturdy determine, regardless of coming [up] in a celebration of very conservative males who usually don’t promote ladies to the very best positions,” he provides.

5. She seems pleasant towards Trump

Takaichi has indicated a friendliness towards President Trump, who referred to as her “a extremely revered individual of nice knowledge and power” in a social media submit earlier this month congratulating her on her rise to celebration management and her anticipated ascension to prime minister.

She responded with a submit of her personal, writing in each English and Japanese that she is “really hoping to work along with President Trump to make our alliance even stronger & extra affluent, and to advance a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”

Corridor says Trump probably has a very good first impression of Takaichi already, due to her fame as an “anti-immigration, hard-line conservative who’s a respecter of his late good friend Shinzo Abe.”

Abe was one of many first international leaders to domesticate a relationship with Trump throughout his first time period. The two grew to become pals as they bonded over wagyu beef burgers, sumo wrestling and golf.

Trump is anticipated to fulfill Takaichi on a go to to Japan later this month. Corridor predicts she’s going to observe the identical playbook as her predecessors:

“You be as good as doable to the president, you present him the utmost respect, you wouldn’t have public disagreements with him,” he says. “And once you do disagree over coverage, you do it in a really delicate manner that does not seem to be you are telling the president he is incorrect.”