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The Complex Rise of Sanae Takaichi

Japan’s new female prime minister breaks barriers but her far-right stance raises new questions about the country’s future on more accounts than one.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report released by WEF in 2025, Japan is ranked 118th out of 148 nations. The gap is particularly acute under indicators of political empowerment and economic participation, the latter placing it at the 120th spot out of 146 countries in 2024’s report. Only 16% of managerial and leadership positions in the country are held by women. 

For a nation that is deeply plagued by its state of gender inequality, the optics of a woman as prime minister may promise inspiration, but Takaichi’s ultraconservative and far-right politics has raised more alarm than applause.

The Making of an ‘Iron Lady’

Sanae Takaichi was born in 1961 in Yamatokōriyama, Nara Prefecture. After graduating from Kobe University, she worked as a broadcast journalist before turning to politics in 1993 as an independent candidate. Three years later, she joined the Liberal Democratic Party. Slowly but steadily, Takaichi climbed the male-dominated ranks of the party. 

Takaichi was the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s protege, thus positioning herself as his ideological successor. She served in multiple iterations of his cabinet, holding positions including Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, and more recently as Minister of State for Economic Security under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

In 2024, Takaichi lost the LDP leadership race to Shigeru Ishiba. But it was her third bid in September this year that brought her success. This, however, led LDP’s longtime coalition partner, the centrist Komeito, to part ways. Takaichi’s far-right views, coupled with LDP’s inadequate handling of corruption sparked Komeito’s departure. But Takaichi was quick to hatch up an alternate partnership with the far-right Japan Innovation Party (Ishin).

Takaichi has been vocal with her admiration for Margaret Thatcher whose social conservatism she’d be hoping to emulate in Japan. She’s even met her political idol before the latter’s passing in 2013. However, in charting economic policies, Takaichi would rather walk the Abe-nomics way. She has consistently advocated for furthering government spending, emphasising both cheap credit access and crisis management investment in critical sectors like semiconductors, defence technology, and AI, to name a few. Takaichi, during her term as Minister of Economic Security, had also pushed for cutting back on foreign supply chain dependence, especially in instances that involved China. She has, by all means, stuck to Shinzo Abe’s pillared reliance on fiscal expansion, monetary easing, and structural reform. But Takaichi may have to offer up some tweaks for better fiscal discipline, as dictated by her party’s new coalition partner, JIP. 

Flagbearer of Hypernationalism

Sanae Takaichi is a member of Nippon Kaigi, a hyper-nationalist organisation doubling up as a lobby group that anchors itself on historical revisionism to portray Japan as less of an aggressor. Many prominent Japanese leaders, especially in LDP, are members of this group which celebrates the country’s role in ‘liberating’ East Asia from the dominance of the West. They’ve worked to mould Japan’s post-war national consciousness in a manner that eclipses the gravity of wartime atrocities like the Nanjing Massacre or the forced induction of women into sexual slavery as ‘comfort women’ during the second World War. Nippon Kaigi seeks to establish patriotic education in schools and expand military capabilities through constitutional amendments to further the nation’s security. It is, in essence, steering a movement that regressively embraces traditionalism. 

Takaichi’s own views on Japanese history have been problematic. In 2002, during a television appearance, she described the country’s invasion of Manchuria, following the staged Mukden incident, as a war that had to be fought for national security. In fact, Takaichi is known to use ‘euphemistic’ terms such as “overseas advances” instead of “invasion” when talking about the nation’s wartime actions. 

Her regular visits to Yasukuni Shrine—a memorial that enshrines 14 Class-A war criminals from World War II—have consistently angered China and South Korea. During the 2021 LDP leadership race, she pledged to continue visiting the shrine if elected prime minister. Though she has recently refrained from visiting to avoid diplomatic fallout, her past rhetoric has been inflammatory. In 2022, she suggested that if Japan continued shrine visits, neighboring countries would eventually "look foolish and stop complaining"—comments that drew sharp criticism in South Korea.

An Advocate for a Not-so-equal Society

Sanae Takaichi opposes same-sex marriage, supports maintaining male-only succession to the throne of Japan, and has blocked legislation that allows married couples to use separate surnames. The last, in her opinion, threatens to dismantle the social structure backing familial units. For a country that is already grappling with the effects of a supremely unequal social fabric, Takaichi, despite being a woman, brings little to no hope for change. 

During her campaign, Takaichi had pledged to increase female representation in her cabinet to levels that match at least half the number in Nordic countries. But after being elected prime minister, only two women were appointed as ministers in her cabinet. One is Satsuki Katayama—the first woman to become finance minister in Japan—and the other, Kimi Onoda, the minister of economic security, a post that Takaichi had held before. 

Her views on immigration are equally hardline. During her campaign, Takaichi cited unconfirmed reports of foreign tourists kicking sacred deer in Nara, using this to advocate for tougher immigration restrictions and even suggesting that Chinese residents of Japan could be potential spies for Beijing. She has called for restrictions on non-Japanese people buying property and a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Hurdles Remain

Despite the ‘historic’ win, Sanae Takaichi still faces challenges. The new coalition has helped her form a minority government—running short by two seats—with the instability threat still looming close. Relying on JIP alone will not secure her term. Internal troubles are brewing alike with the slush fund scam and recent LDP defeats teasing party splits. 

The Japanese public will also be expecting prompt action to resolve the cost of living crisis that the country has been facing. Internationally, Takaichi must contend with the pressure of navigating talks with the US and regional leaders. Without domestic stability in hand, committing to a steady diplomatic agenda may be difficult. 

Takaichi’s rise shows that gender alone does not guarantee enlightened leadership, just as breaking barriers does not necessarily open doors for those who follow. Takaichi may inspire young Japanese girls to see themselves in positions of authority, but what ideology will they absorb along the way? 

This episode reveals that even historic firsts can be co-opted by reactionary forces; that a party mired in corruption scandals and declining public trust can still push the national conversation further rights; and that a woman can reach the summit of power while actively working to ensure fewer women follow. The state of politics as we know it today is as murky as it can get.

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