Becoming president of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and soon the country’s first female prime minister is the easy part. Sanae Takaichi can rely on a fractured opposition to win a majority of votes in the legislature to become the next prime minister. In a speech following her election as party president , she promised she would give up work-life balance and "work, work, work" to revive Japan, a comment that earned chuckles from her colleagues.

Although pitching herself as Japan’s Margaret Thatcher, she does not favor Thatcher’s fiscal discipline. Like Thatcher, she is not a healer, and she does not have an encouraging track record on empowering women. She must heal the internal party rift, boost public support, tackle urgent economic issues, and manage the menace of President

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