Takaichi elected first female Japanese PM
Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was elected Japan’s first female prime minister in parliament on Tuesday, backed by the party’s new coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), amid political flux caused by growing multiparty dynamics.
While the alliance of the LDP and the JIP holds just short of a majority in the House of Representatives, Takaichi was endorsed by both houses of parliament as Shigeru Ishiba’s successor, as opposition forces failed to field a joint candidate.
Takaichi has been stepping up arrangements for her Cabinet, with a source close to her saying she may select LDP lawmaker Satsuki Katayama for finance minister as they are both fiscal doves.
By appointing Katayama, a former senior Finance Ministry bureaucrat and former minister for regional revitalization, Takaichi is apparently aiming to project a sense of renewal for the LDP-led government through the broad inclusion of women in key positions.
Female ministers
Takaichi has also decided to pick female LDP lawmaker Kimi Onoda as economic security minister and Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator with the United States, as trade minister to ensure continuity in bilateral talks.
The source added Takaichi has been willing to offer major posts to her four rivals in October’s LDP leadership election, signaling her intention to project party unity through the new Cabinet.
In the lower house vote, the 64-year-old conservative clinched victory by winning 237 ballots in the first round, in which a candidate must secure more than half to avoid a runoff, with several independents believed to have supported her.
Takaichi, meanwhile, faced a runoff in the House of Councillors and was declared the winner with 125 ballots, surpassing the 46 for Yoshihiko Noda, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, while 47 were deemed invalid and 28 left blank.
The LDP and the JIP, also known as Nippon Ishin, lack a majority in the upper house as well, which will force Takaichi, a security hawk and fiscal dove, to walk a tightrope as she seeks cooperation from other opposition parties to pass bills.
Before the parliamentary vote on the first day of a 58-day extraordinary session through Dec. 17, Ishiba’s Cabinet, launched in October 2024 but weakened by its failure to retain majorities in elections for both chambers, resigned en masse.
End of a coalition
The vote came after Takaichi, a former internal affairs minister, won the Oct. 4 LDP leadership race, which was followed by the centrist Komeito party’s departure, ending their 26-year coalition and prompting her party to seek a new ally.
The LDP and the JIP, headed by Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura, agreed on Monday to form a coalition, pledging to unite behind Takaichi in the prime ministerial vote. The JIP is unlikely to occupy any Cabinet posts and will instead play an advisory role to the prime minister.
Takaichi has decided to give the post of defense minister to Shinjiro Koizumi, the source said, while Toshimitsu Motegi is expected to be picked as foreign minister. The two were among her rivals in the LDP leadership race.
The two others are Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, who may be tapped as internal affairs and communications minister, and Takayuki Kobayashi, already appointed as the LDP’s policy chief.
Stocks at all-time high
Hitoshi Kikawada, a former senior vice minister for the Cabinet Office and a close aide to Takaichi, and Jiro Akama, a former senior vice minister for the internal affairs ministry, are also seen as potential Cabinet members under her, the source said.
The Nikkei stock index closed at an all-time high on Tuesday on optimism for fresh economic steps after Takaichi became prime minister, but its upside was capped by profit-taking.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 130.56 points, or 0.27 percent, from Monday at 49,316.06 after hitting an intraday record high near 50,000. The broader Topix index finished 1.05 points, or 0.03 percent, higher at 3,249.50.
The US dollar climbed to the mid-151 yen range in Tokyo after the election of Takaichi, who is known as a fiscal dove and proponent of easy monetary policy.
