Japan’s First Female Prime Minister Has to Be a Hard-Liner

If she wins this week’s leadership vote, Sanae Takaichi’s ultranationalist agenda will stir up the region.

Sanae Takaichi, in a blue suit, gestures at a pink lectern in front of a green wall. October 2, 2025, 12:01 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

In a leadership vote on Saturday, Sanae Takaichi is tipped to become Japan’s first female prime minister. Takaichi offers a powerful demonstration of progress and gender visibility on the global stage. Yet the substance of her politics—a rigidly ultraconservative ideology molded by her mentor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe—actively serves to reinforce, rather than dismantle, the entrenched conservative and patriarchal structures of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP

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