Conservative Sanae Takaichi is set to become Japan’s first female prime minister after winning the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership election on Saturday.
The leadership contest was triggered when Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigned in September, following the ruling coalition’s loss of its majority in July’s upper house elections. Takaichi held several cabinet positions, including interior affairs and economic security, in the governments of Shinzo Abe and Fumio Kishida.
“We must tackle the issues that many citizens are currently facing as quickly as possible. I’d like to really focus my efforts on measures to counter rising prices,” said Takaichi after the vote.
Takaichi took first place in the leadership contest’s first round of voting, and defeated the more moderate Minister of Agriculture Shinjiro Koizumi in a runoff with 185 to 156 votes. She was also a candidate in the 2021 and 2024 LDP leadership elections.
A parliamentary session to elect Takaichi as prime minister is expected in mid-October, and cabinet appointees will likely be named this week. She will serve out the remainder of Ishiba’s term, which will expire in 2027.
She has said she is open to expanding the LDP’s minority coalition, potentially adding a new party alongside its partner Komeito. “We would need to firmly establish a policy agreement and move forward based on that,” Takaichi said.
Takaichi is a supporter of Shinzo Abe’s ‘Abenomics’ policies, which include stimulating the economy through high government spending and quantitative easing from Japan’s central bank.
She also plans to raise the tax-free income threshold and end Japan’s gasoline tax.
Takaichi has said she will carry out the trade agreement Japan sealed with the United States earlier this year, which would lower Japan’s tariff rate in exchange for Japanese investment in the U.S.
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