Japan Likely to Receive Their First-Ever Female Prime Minister

Japan's ruling party has elected Sanae Takaichi as their new leader, setting the country up for its first-ever female prime minister.

Takaichi is a far-right conservative who served as the former Economic Security Minister of Japan, but she will now become the leader of Japan's leading Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after their latest vote.

The news comes several weeks after Japan's current prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, announced that he would be resigning from his position. In 2024, Ishiba called for snap elections for the lower house of the Japanese parliament, but they backfired on his party and resulted in his coalition's loss of majority. Then, in July 2025, his party failed to win a majority over the upper house, leading to calls for his resignation. To avoid dividing his party, Ishiba agreed to do so, stepping down from his position as Prime Minister and leader of the LDP.

Despite these parliamentary losses, the LDP remains Japan's strongest party, meaning that their candidate is the most likely to win the election. Because of this, the LDP's announcement of their next leader set Japan up for their first-ever female prime minister.

Takaichi's primary rival for the position was Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, but she managed to defeat in in a party runoff election.

Now, Takaichi has a relatively clear path to being elected as prime minister, save for some sort of surprise defeat or shock coalition from other parties. She is expected to be confirmed as their next leader later this month, where she will take control and attempt to regain support for her party. Japanese citizens are currently struggling with major issues like high cost of living and inflation, and Takaichi's primary goals will be to solve these problems after re-establishing her party's reputation.

Takaichi has also stated that another one of the key points on her agenda will be to strengthen ties with the United States, who are likely to demand for Japan to increase their defense spending at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in late October.

However, Takaichi is known for her hardline, ultra-conservative policies– a stark contrast to Ishiba's centrist conservative measures. Despite this, Takaichi will likely be forced to take a more centrist approach to the changes she makes, as the other parties in her coalition are more centrist. Additionally, she could consider expanding her coalition to gain support from other parties, which would likely be one of the opposition. This would further shift her policies towards the center, but how much those policies resemble Ishiba's is yet to be seen.

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Image credit to the New York Times