The Potential Impact of Takaichi Sanae, Japan’s First Female Prime Minister: A Conversation with Dr. Sheila Smith, John E. Merow Senior Fellow for As…

How did Takaichi Sanae overcome barriers to become prime minister? What circumstances and personal qualifications or experiences helped her candidacy succeed?

The path to the prime minister’s office for Takaichi Sanae was hard-won. Her political career dovetails with electoral reform in Japan, and she ran for office for the first time just as the country was deliberating serious political reforms. She narrowly lost her first election for the Upper House in 1992 but returned to campaign for a Lower House seat in 1993 as an independent candidate and won. Once elected, she joined the Shinshintō or the New Frontier Party, a liberal party intent on challenging the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for power. But in the 1996 general election, the LDP regained popularity, and the New Frontier Party lost its appeal. Within months, the LDP Secretary General identified Takaichi as a lawmaker to recruit.

Japan’s new prime minister also worked her way up the ladder of cabinet positions and LDP party policy groups. She worked as parliamentary vice minister, serving two stints in the Ministry of Economic, Trade, and Industry, first under Prime Minister Obuchi Keizō and then under Prime Minister Koizumi Jun’ichirō. Her party posts included two stints as head of the LDP’s influential Policy Research Council, where she helped shape the party’s policy goals.

Politically, she is closely aligned with the policies of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō. She served as Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications during Abe’s second term in office. During this time, she drew controversy for two reasons: first, attempting to extend greater government control over the content of NHK, the nation’s public broadcasting company; and second, for being one of the first sitting cabinet ministers to visit Yasukuni Shrine. More recently, she was Minister for Economic Security in the Kishida Cabinet, the first to occupy that new role.

This was her third attempt at the LDP presidency. Takaichi has always advocated for Japanese tradition—in her brand of conservative politics and in her cultural and social values. Takaichi also owes her success to the growing popularity of conservative nationalism in Japan. Like many other democracies around the globe, the Japanese are questioning their postwar experience and ideas, and identifying new problems, such as the growing worry about China and the rise in foreign visitors to Japan. Takaichi draws conservative support for her priorities of being strong on Japan’s defense spending and tackling immigration tensions.

What “role model” effect might her leadership have on women in politics in Japan or Asia more generally?

Takaichi often says her role model was Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister and “Iron Lady.” Her political mentor in Japan was Abe Shinzō. Takaichi’s firm positions on national security, defense, and foreign policy hew quite close to Abe’s. During President Donald Trump’s visit to Tokyo this week, Takaichi frequently alluded to Abe’s close relationship with Trump, including a gift of a putter that the former prime minister owned, as she ushered in a new Golden Age for the U.S.-Japan Alliance.

Many Japanese will see in their new prime minister evidence of greater voice and opportunity for women, especially younger women. It would be a mistake to characterize her priorities as feminist; her ideas will attract men and women of conservative leanings across generations. Nonetheless, two female cabinet picks stand out in the Takaichi Cabinet. First, her appointment of Katayama Satsuki to head the influential Ministry of Finance puts a woman in charge of one of the most powerful positions in the Japanese Cabinet. She is known for her tough negotiating style and her ambition to revamp Japan’s retirement system to emphasize investment over savings. Katayama will also be U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent’s counterpart, a critical player in determining how the $550 billion foreign direct investment deal that accompanied the tariff agreement will be implemented. Second, she appointed Onoda Kimi to hold the dual posts of economic security minister and minister charged with handling foreign residents, signaling Takaichi’s focus on implementing harsher immigration policies. At forty-two, Onoda is the Cabinet’s youngest member and played a visible role in the recent Trump visit, signing a bilateral agreement to enhance U.S.-Japan cooperation in new technologies.

But it would be foolish to underestimate the potential Takaichi has for changing the face of Japanese politics if the LDP can once again make headway with the electorate. Few political parties, her own included, have offered much space for women in their leadership. Women currently make up only 15.7 percent of National Diet members. She can change that. Her encouragement of women in her own party, women in the Japanese government, and women across Japanese society could transform how Japan is led in the years ahead. If, as Japan’s prime minister, she can project strength and influence on the global stage, women in Japan and across Asia will take note. This will be a different stage for Takaichi, and she will need to build allies and partners abroad.

What policies might she pursue that would have a particular impact on women?

During her run for her party’s leadership and through her negotiations with other parties in Japan, Takaichi focused mainly on Japan’s economy and its defense. Her policy speech to the Diet highlighted these two priorities.

The issue area most likely to impact women’s lives is the pocketbook issues—the rising cost of living, in particular, is seen by most Japanese voters as the most pressing concern. Ensuring wages keep pace with inflation continues to focus the attention of economists, but Japanese households are demanding the government provide short-term aid to cope with rising prices. Reducing taxes on core needs such as food and gasoline, reducing the tax burden on lower income families, and sustaining and expanding child and elder care are all issues that directly impact the family.

Takaichi’s social views emphasize the traditional view of the family. For example, she believes that husband and wife should share the same family name and opposes women retaining their names after marriage. Japan’s courts, too, have rejected this right for women. When Takaichi married an established LDP politician, she took his family name. They later divorced but then remarried, and this time, her husband took her family name.

How might her leadership have an impact on the world stage, given the limited representation of women as heads of state and government? Do you expect being a woman will influence her policies, or will her political philosophy as a conservative be the most salient factor?

Any increase in the number of women leaders is a plus. But it is true that Takaichi Sanae will find few women as her counterparts. I doubt that fazed her role model, Maggie Thatcher, and I doubt that it will faze Takaichi. However, I expect her style to differ.

In the flurry of diplomatic activities this past week, Takaichi successfully navigated the norms of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the unpredictability of President Trump, and the intensity of major power rivalry that infused the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. Beginning just days after she was elected prime minister, Takaichi attended the ASEAN Summit and seemed to be a hit. She hosted President Trump in Tokyo, their first meeting, and seemed to win him over. She joined the APEC Summit in South Korea and came away from a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung committed to building Tokyo’s ties with Seoul, despite some concerns about her views on the legacies of the past.

To be sure, she has a formidable Japanese bureaucracy to support her as she navigates this complex moment in international relations, but it will be interesting to see with which leader she finds personal affinity, and on what issues she finds common cause. But first she will need to persuade Japan’s voters to come back to her party again.