Desk Report:
Japan’s ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader, putting the 64-year-old politician on course to become Japan’s first female prime minister.
Sanae Takaichi is one of the most conservative candidates in the ruling party’s right-wing camp. Former minister Takaichi is well-known in Japanese politics as a TV presenter and heavy metal drummer. But he is also controversial for a number of reasons.
If confirmed by parliament as prime minister, Takaichi will face several important challenges. First, resolving the economic problems of citizens suffering from a slowing economy and persistent inflation and wage stagnation. Second, repairing fragile relations with the United States and implementing the tariff agreement agreed by the previous government with the Trump administration. But Takaichi’s biggest challenge will be to unify a party beset by internal scandals and infighting.
Professor Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, told the BBC that Takaichi is unlikely to have much success in bridging internal party divisions.
Sanae Takaichi is part of a hardline faction of the LDP. They believe the LDP’s decline in support is due to the party’s shift away from the right. Professor Kingston believes he could regain support from right-wing voters; but this could reduce his appeal to the wider public.
Takaichi is a fan of Britain’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. She also has ambitions to become the ‘Iron Lady’. However, many female voters do not see her as progressive. Although she compares herself to Thatcher, Professor Kingston believes she is not like Thatcher in terms of maintaining financial discipline.
Sanae Takaichi is personally quite conservative. In addition to being hardline, Sanae is also known as a ‘patriarch’. Sanae has opposed past measures or bills to promote women’s development in Japan. She believes that women should be good wives and mothers first, as does her party, the LDP.
She opposes same-sex marriage. She also objects to women using their father’s surname instead of their husband’s. Takaichi claims that separate surnames for husbands and wives go against traditional Japanese culture.
Takaichi, known as a disciple of the late former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, has pledged to bring back Abenomics, an economic plan of high spending and low-interest loans. He is a hard-line security advocate and has sought to amend Japan’s pacifist constitution.
Takaichi has also been the subject of some controversy. Many accuse him of regularly visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, a controversial shrine in Japan that honors the souls of Japan’s war dead as well as some convicted war criminals.
The ruling LDP is currently in a weak position, having lost its majority in both houses of parliament. So Takaichi will not automatically become prime minister like his predecessors, but he is more likely to be confirmed as prime minister in parliament.
