Sanae Takaichi was named Japan's first woman prime minister Tuesday, with the social conservative saying she wanted "candid discussions" with US President Donald Trump just days ahead of his visit to Tokyo.

Japan's fifth premier in as many years leads a minority government and has a bulging in-tray, not least the scheduled arrival of the US leader next week.

But in her first remarks in office, she said her priority was to tackle inflation, a major source of anger among voters, and would soon draft an "economic package" to deal with rising prices.

The former heavy metal drummer and Margaret Thatcher admirer became head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on October 4, but its coalition collapsed days later.

This forced Takaichi to form an alliance with the reformist, right-leaning Jap

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