Sanae Takaichi had been Japan’s first female prime minister for barely a week when she faced her first trial by fire: a state visit from a possibly cantankerous US President Donald Trump. There was plenty on the line. A valued military alliance. Billions of dollars in trade deals. The threat of punishing tariffs. Takaichi was not only new in the job (appointed on October 21), but as the leader of a minority government – and whose party has now had five prime ministers in five years – she was under intense scrutiny. How would she perform?

In the end, Takaichi (pronounced Taka-Ichi) pulled off a diplomatic masterclass.

Parked outside Tokyo’s neo-baroque Akasaka Palace, where the leaders and their entourages were to meet, was an American-made Ford F-150 truck painted gold, Trump’s favourite colour. The pair dined on Japanese specialities made with US-sourced beef and rice (Trump has long urged Japan to buy more American rice) and bonded over a broadcast of a World Series baseball contest between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, home to the Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani.

Then there were the gifts. Few do gift-giving better than the Japanese, for whom choosing and presenting thoughtful tokens can take on immense ceremonial significance. Takaichi gave golf-loving Trump a golf ball and tee set covered in gold leaf, a caddie bag signed by 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and – the icing on the cake – a putter once owned by the late prime minister Shinzo Abe, a friend and golfing buddy of Trump’s, who was assassinated in 2022.

Oh, one more thing. Takaichi said that in honour of next year’s 250th anniversary of American independence, Japan would send over 250 of its famed cherry blossom trees and a cache of fireworks from artisans in the Akita prefecture, home of its national fireworks competition.

Trump could not have been happier. He invited Takaichi to join him on the deck of a nearby US aircraft carrier, praised her strong handshake and promised her “anything you want, any favours you need, anything”.

And so, with the world spotlight on her, Takaichi had triumphed in what Adam Simpson, a Japan observer at the University of South Australia, describes as a particularly “delicate task”.

What other challenges must she negotiate in her new job? Is being the first female Japanese PM historically significant? How did she get there?

Who is Sanae Takaichi?

Takaichi was born in 1961 in Yamatokoriyama city, in the prefecture of Nara, close to Osaka and Kyoto and known for its ancient wooden temples and a park filled with wild deer. She was the eldest of two siblings with a police officer mother and a father who worked for a vehicle company.

In a country where successful politicians tend to come from wealthy dynasties, it was not an auspicious start. Nor did her parents have particularly high hopes for her career, reportedly not seeing the point in a woman even attending university. Takaichi, a hard-working student, pressed on and went to public Kobe University, commuting several hours a day to study business management.

She also played drums in a band, liked heavy metal music (Black Sabbath was, apparently, a favourite) and rode a Kawasaki motorcycle (her love of bikes and cars would remain a constant; a pearl-white twin-turbo Toyota Supra sports car she drove for two decades is on display in a museum in Nara).

Her early politics were atypical. She openly admired British prime minister Margaret Thatcher for her ability to both advance conservative ideals and to shake up the establishment (and mirrored her dress sense, favouring blue suits). Yet, she also interned in Washington in her mid-twenties for Democrat congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, a feminist trailblazer who had been considered a presidential contender.

“Sanae was friendly, she was curious, she was eager to learn,” Kip Cheroutes, who worked for Schroeder at the time, told the Denver-based news site Westword in October. “It was clear that Sanae had ambitions. I think her success stems from watching how Pat Schroeder dealt with people on the street, going into stores, saying hello, shaking hands. I think Sanae learnt how to connect with people from Schroeder.”

On her return to Japan, Takaichi worked as a television presenter before first running for office, unsuccessfully, in 1992. The following year, however, she won a seat in Japan’s parliament as an independent for Nara. It was not easy being a woman in a patriarchal system, she admitted in a book she wrote in 1995, recalling how she had been excluded from meetings that male colleagues held at saunas and clubs. “Lately, I’ve just given up and started going along, no matter where they go,” she wrote. “A true era for women will arrive when many female politicians emerge who are neither the mascot type who exploit their femininity excessively, nor the tough-guy type who discard their femininity excessively.”

She proved to be a pragmatic operator, successfully running again for the minor New Frontier Party in 1996 but breaking ranks after she was approached to join Japan’s dominant political force, the Liberal Democratic Party. It was a strategic move that cemented her career, bringing her into the orbit of LDP leader Abe, who would become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and with whom she cultivated a close relationship.

“She was a trusted member of the Abe faction, the hawkish, the conservative traditionalist, if you like,” says Japan scholar Purnendra Jain at the University of Adelaide. Abe appointed Takaichi to a succession of ministerial posts, and then when he stepped down in 2020 he supported her (first, unsuccessful) bid for party leadership. She finally succeeded on her third attempt, in October this year, following the resignation of prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, who had served just one year as leader, scuttled by the taint of earlier corruption scandals in the party, economic woes and dismal approval ratings.

It was, by then, three years since Abe had been fatally shot while making a speech in Nara. The alleged assassin, 45-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, is on trial, having pleaded guilty to the shooting but contesting some related charges. Abe still looms large, says Sebastian Maslow, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo. Takaichi, 64, has portrayed herself as his “legitimate successor” and a “torchbearer of his conservative policy agenda”.

Takaichi joined a small club of female prime ministers, alongside the likes of Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Lithuania’s Inga Ruginiene and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.

Takaichi did not immediately become prime minister, however, as her party did not have enough seats in the parliament to make her ascent a formality. While the LDP has held power almost continuously since its formation in 1955, its fortunes have waned in recent years. In the 2024 general election, it recorded one of the worst results in its history. Many voters defected to smaller, more extreme right-wing parties, particularly those concerned with immigration and foreign visitors (more on that below).

While the LDP is still the largest party, it struggled to govern with a minority of seats in the parliament’s lower house. Then, when it voted in Takaichi as its new leader, there was another blow: its long-term coalition partner, the centrist Komeito (or Komei Party), backed out of the 26-year alliance, saying the LDP had failed to properly address the earlier corruption scandals.

A last-minute deal with the right-leaning Japan Innovation Party (or Nippon Ishin) gathered just enough votes to do the trick: Takaichi joined a small club of female prime ministers, alongside the likes of Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Lithuania’s Inga Ruginiene and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.

Like Abe, Takaichi has pledged to restore a “strong Japan” by boosting the country’s defence capabilities and the US-Japan alliance and, most importantly, by continuing to re-examine its postwar pacifist constitution.

Japan’s constitution was largely written by occupying forces – led by US General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander for the Allied powers in Japan – after World War II. It instituted a parliament called the Diet, composed of a lower and upper house, the prime minister leading the lower. The emperor, who under the previous Meiji constitution had ultimate authority, was stripped of all executive powers bar largely symbolic ones.

‘Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation ...’

Article 9 of Japan’s constitution

Critically, the occupying forces insisted that the new constitution make it impossible for Japan to once again prove a military threat to other nations. Article 9 declares: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes … land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognised.”

Some governments subsequently sought to interpret this clause based on a perceived need for self-defence. Consequently, despite Article 9, Japan’s Self Defence Force now has close to 257,000 active personnel, more than 1000 aircraft in a state of readiness, more than 1000 tanks and other artillery weapons, and a significant navy that includes 24 submarines. Takaichi has pledged to raise defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP. US forces also remain in the Japanese archipelago: about 55,000 US personnel are stationed across 14 major installations, and the port of Yokosuka is home to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which Trump and Takaichi visited together in late October.

In her personal life, Takaichi is married to former politician Taku Yamamoto and is stepmother to his three children from a previous relationship. Curiously, they have wed each other twice, divorcing in 2017 citing political differences then remarrying in 2021. Yamamoto, who is partly paralysed following a stroke earlier this year, describes himself as a “stealth husband” who likes to cook but will shun the limelight.

What are Takaichi’s politics?

Leaning to the right in Japan registers, in Takaichi’s case, as support for defence spending, controversial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where executed Japanese war criminals are interred, and nationalist views, like those of Abe, that have played into hysteria about immigration and overtourism. She is routinely dubbed Japan’s “Iron Lady”, an easy trope based on her admiration for Thatcher, who she is believed to have met at a symposium before the former British prime minister’s death in 2013.

“What inspires her in Margaret Thatcher is her toughness,” says Purnendra Jain. “In a male-dominated political world, how she could be a tough politician.” The Financial Times hailed her ascent to PM as a victory for women, Takaichi steering “through an obstructive, chauvinistic sludge of old men, to the point where, according to friends, little can faze her”.

While her current policies include greater financial support for women and mothers, she has rarely overtly campaigned for women’s rights. She supports male-only succession within the royal family (the current emperor’s brother, nephew then uncle are in line rather than his only child, a daughter), and she rejects same-sex marriage (though apparently has no issue with same-sex couples).

‘The sight of a woman leading a government for the first time offers some hope for younger women that they may be able to make an impact in Japanese politics, and Japanese society.’

Adam Simpson, University of South Australia

Nor does she support a heated campaign to allow both men and women to keep separate surnames after marriage, a practice called “fufu bessei”, meaning “married couples with different last names” (her own husband took her surname when they remarried). “For many in Japan, it serves as a key item for feminist discourse and a benchmark for promoting gender equality,” says Maslow of the names issue. “In that sense, many female voters are critical of her policies and see Takaichi has a backlash for realising gender equality.”

She did suggest she would increase female representation in the cabinet to “Nordic” levels – apparently meaning equal numbers of women to men or more – but, in the end, chose two women out of 19 positions: Satsuki Katayama, the first woman to hold the post of finance minister, and economic security minister Kimi Onoda.

Nevertheless, says Adam Simpson, “It is still important that Takaichi has broken the glass ceiling and become PM, even if she does not consider herself a feminist. The sight of a woman leading a government for the first time offers some hope for younger women that they may be able to make an impact in Japanese politics, and Japanese society more broadly.”

He also argues that to pigeonhole Takaichi as “far right” would be misleading. “She is from the conservative wing of the LDP, as was Abe,” says Simpson, who was also recently a visiting scholar at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University. “I wouldn’t expect progressive changes in relation to, for instance, women’s rights in what is a very male-dominated patriarchal society. Nevertheless, the LDP is a centre-right conservative party and not as right wing as Sanseito [Japan’s ultra-conservative Political Participation Party], which would be considered far or hard right in terms of its xenophobia and other right-wing populist positions.”

Takaichi may now also choose to moderate views that could prove alienating to some LDP members, perhaps in the fashion of Italy’s Meloni, a right-wing leader who has nevertheless charmed many of her left-wing European counterparts. Takaichi recently passed up an opportunity for a significant visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, instead sending an offering. Past visits by Japanese leaders, including Abe, angered regional neighbours South Korea and China for reviving memories of Japanese atrocities, such as the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 in which between 100,000 and 200,000 Chinese people were murdered during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Takaichi was also a member of a government that in 2021 disputed the extent of the abuse of so-called “comfort women” in the 1930s and during World War II, the Chinese, Korean and other women and girls who were taken by Japanese forces to work in brothels servicing troops.

Economically, Takaichi believes in government spending, tax cuts and lowering interest rates despite the threat of inflation, roughly mirroring the stimulus policies of her mentor Abe, known as “Abenomics”. “Takaichi has already achieved a major realignment in Japanese politics,” says Craig Mark, a lecturer in the economics department at Hosei University in Tokyo. “It remains to be seen if this is enough to get her policy agenda of economic stimulus and increased defence spending through the Diet, as replacing Komeito with the JIP still leaves the LDP in a minority government in both houses, dependent on support of opposition parties to pass legislation.”

‘I ask everybody to work, work like a horse. I myself will cast aside the idea of work-life balance. I’ll work, work, work, work and work.’

Sanae Takaichi

In a victory speech to her colleagues, Takaichi described the newly formed coalition as governing in “extremely difficult circumstances”. She admitted: “At this moment, rather than feeling happy, I feel the hardship that is to come. There is an overwhelming amount of work that we must do together … We can only rebuild by reuniting every generation and with everybody’s participation. Because there are only a few of us, I ask everybody to work, work like a horse. I myself will cast aside the idea of work-life balance. I’ll work, work, work, work and work.”

She demonstrated her superhuman work ethic by scheduling a 3am study session with her secretaries that ran for three hours before a parliamentary meeting later that morning. “Since it’s her first budget committee meeting, there seem to be questions that are difficult for her,” a government official later explained. “She probably wanted to put the draft responses prepared by administrative staff into her own words.”

In November, she confessed to a legislative committee she only sleeps around two hours a night, four at the most. Styling herself as a workaholic may backfire, says Maslow. “Another key concern where we will likely see considerable criticism of her policies is Takaichi’s push towards further deregulating the labour market, allowing for longer working hours. For a country that has exported the concept of ‘karoshi’, death by overwork, this is no small matter, and this policy may as well be considered anachronistic to current public concerns.”

What’s the issue with tourists (and what else will Takaichi have to deal with)?

Takaichi can at least chalk up one early success. Trump has levied tariffs on most Japanese goods into the United States at 15 per cent, lower than he had threatened, in return for a Japanese commitment to invest $US550 billion in US industry. After their meetings, Trump bragged about his dealmaking skills and said the agreement ushered in a “golden age”; Takaichi’s people made grand gestures such as suggesting they might buy a fleet of American trucks that are near-useless on Japan’s narrow roads, pandering to another of Trump’s bugbears, little overseas appetite for US vehicles.

“It was a bit of a surprise to many, including me, the way she handled Trump’s visit to Tokyo,” says Purnendra Jain. “She did very well. She was very comfortable in his company.” (“Toranpu Kanzei”, meanwhile, is one of Japan’s buzz phrases of the year, according to the publishing company Jiyu Kokumin Sha. Toranpu means Trump, Kanzei tariff.)

Other early diplomatic forays have also been judged a success, according to Hosei University’s Craig Mark, “First with her visit to the ASEAN summits and then the APEC summit in South Korea, which included a relatively cordial if somewhat cool meeting with Xi Jinping.”

Relations with China are touchy. Takaichi has previously called for reduced trade dependency on China and supports hosting US medium-range missiles on Japan’s territory. She also recently suggested that Japan could intervene if there were a military conflict between China and Taiwan, characterising it as a “survival-threatening situation” (apparently relying on a reinterpretation of the constitution’s Article 9 that would allow Japan to participate in hostilities with its allies).

China’s consul general in Osaka, Xue Jian, was furious, declaring on the microblogging platform X: “We have no choice but to cut off that dirty neck that has lunged at us without a moment’s hesitation. Are you ready?” (The post was later deleted and Japan has made a formal complaint to China.)

‘Her failure would reinforce disappointment and frustration among women in Japan, seeing themselves disadvantaged in society.’

Sebastian Maslow, University of Tokyo

Within Japan, says Mark, “She has received a bump in the opinion polls, rating higher than any of her immediate predecessors, also aided by the historic cachet of being the Japan’s first female prime minister, despite her being a social conservative.”

Maslow agrees Takaichi’s breaking the glass ceiling is a big deal. “Now the challenge is for her to not fall off a glass cliff,” he says. “Her failure would reinforce disappointment and frustration among women in Japan, seeing themselves disadvantaged in society.” Women hold fewer than 14 per cent of senior and middle management positions in Japan. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 global gender gap report, which aggregates factors ranging from health to political empowerment, ranks Japan just 118 out of 145 countries.

To stay in power, Takaichi must make progress on both long-term macroeconomic conundrums – how to juice a stalled economy in which real wages have not risen since 2021 – and short-term popular flashpoints such as the surname debate and the alleged antisocial behaviour of foreign visitors.

Adam Simpson says her to-do list will include addressing labour shortages (Japan is facing an acute decline in the proportion of its population that is of working age), easing trade tensions in a slowing global economy and dealing with “relatively high inflation, high debt and increasing interest rates”. The broader challenge, he says, is “to balance the demographic crisis of a rapidly ageing population and increasing immigration to cover skills gaps with the concerns over a changing society”.

‘Her grip on power will depend on whether she can deliver that reform, which for most voters means lower living expenses more than anything else.’

Sebastian Maslow, University of Tokyo

New prime ministers often benefit from the public’s hope in reform, Maslow says. She performed extremely well in a recent NHK opinion poll, with an approval rating of 66 per cent. “Her grip on power will depend on whether she can deliver that reform, which for most voters means lower living expenses more than anything else.”

Overtourism was a significant issue during the recent LDP leadership contest, fuelled by cheap flights, post-COVID “revenge” travel and social media box-ticking. Last year, a record number of people visited Japan, 36.87 million – nearly a million of whom were Australian – which was well up on the previous all-time high of 31.9 million visitors in 2019. While tourism is essential for the Japanese economy, some fear it is taking a toll on the traditional way of life.

Japan was once a hermit kingdom, allowing few visitors before it was forced by the US to open up to trade more substantively in 1858. The old town of Kyoto, the former imperial capital, is now over-run with tourists hoping to snap photos of geisha; others litter in scenic spots advertised on Instagram; some are ignorant of tightly followed Japanese customs such as not eating on the run. Outraged newspaper editorials have accused travellers of staging mock fights on trains for YouTube, disrupting a running race, using historic monuments for fitness stunts and clogging up a picturesque railway crossing in Kamakura, south of Tokyo, made famous by the anime show Slam Dunk.

‘If foreigners do something that breaks the law, the police should not hesitate to arrest them.’

Sankei Shimbun editorial, April

“Troublesome behavior by foreign visitors to Japan is becoming a real problem,” said the Sankei Shimbun newspaper in April, claiming that tourists had defaced shrines, thrown stones, danced “wildly” and committed “mischief” such as parking illegally. “If foreigners do something that breaks the law, the police should not hesitate to arrest them.”

Residents of Kutchan, near the Niseko ski slopes, have petitioned the government to block development of housing for up to 1200 foreign workers who are needed during the snow season but who, some fear, will undermine the area’s social order.

Takaichi has joined the discussion, famously claiming she had seen tourists kick deer in Nara’s celebrated park and has appointed Kimi Onada as “Minister in charge of a Society of Well-Ordered and Harmonious Coexistence with Foreign Nationals”. “While we must not fall into xenophobia,” Onada has said, “ensuring the safety and security of our citizens is essential for economic growth. I intend to work closely with relevant government agencies to comprehensively consider various issues, including stricter responses to those who violate the rules and reviewing systems and policies that are not adequately responsive to the current situation surrounding foreigners.”

There are indeed concerns over how the number of foreigners in the country is changing the country says Simpson, “but it hasn’t resulted in the widespread antipathy to foreigners found in many news articles. Whoever is in power will need to maintain significant immigration just to keep the country functioning. The challenge for Takaichi is to counter the online hysteria with rational argument and policy. She seems to have moderated her rhetoric and positions on foreigners somewhat since ascending to the leadership of the LDP and then the premiership, but it is very early days.”

Japan has now had 19 prime ministers since 1990. “She’s riding a wave of popularity,” says Jain, “but how she’s going to manage this from now on is a big challenge given her political fragility.”

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