{"id":189324,"date":"2025-10-04T09:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T09:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/189324\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T09:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T09:34:10","slug":"sanae-takaichi-set-to-be-japans-first-female-pm-after-winning-liberal-democratic-party-leadership-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/189324\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanae Takaichi set to be Japan’s first female PM after winning Liberal Democratic Party leadership contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan is set to get its first female prime minister, after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party voted Sanae Takaichi as its leader.<\/p>\n

Ms Takaichi won a party ballot in a run-off against Shinjiro Koizumi, who hoped to become the youngest prime minister in post-war Japan.<\/p>\n

Ms Takaichi is a conservative and regards former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a role model.<\/p>\n

The top contenders for Japan’s next PM<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan’s top political party is looking for a new leader \u2014 and the frontrunner options could not be more different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, she pledged to\u00a0strengthen Japan\u2019s role in the Indo Pacific, tackle rising prices, and implement “robust” measures for hospitals and welfare.<\/p>\n

The decision comes after the Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation, after he led the party into minority government following poor election results.<\/p>\n

“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each and every one of you for carving out this new era for the Liberal Democratic Party,” she told the party.<\/p>\n

“Rather than feeling joyful now, I realise the real challenge lies ahead.”<\/p>\n

“We will forge a more spirited and vibrant party.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sanae Takaichi, vows to “abandon” her work-life balance,\u00a0in order to restore trust in her party. (AP: Kim Kyung-Hoon)<\/p>\n

The decision comes after the Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation after only a year in the job.<\/p>\n

The outgoing prime minister led the LDP into minority government after poor election results, with many voters viewing the once great political party as failing to deliver on cost-of-living issues.<\/p>\n

Japan’s prime minister has resigned<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba quits to avoid a split within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

The party’s new leader vowed to “abandon” her work-life balance, as she works to restore trust.<\/p>\n

“Our numbers are small,” Ms Takaichi said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone must work. I too will abandon work-life balance.<\/p>\n

“I shall work, work, work, work, work.”<\/p>\n

Takaichi’s image shift in face of political rivals<\/p>\n

Ms Takaichi narrowly lost the leadership in last year’s ballot, after party members swung behind Shigeru Ishiba, fearing the conservative politician may prove too divisive for mainstream voters.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, she’s presented a softer image and built up a stronger social media following than the current Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba.<\/p>\n

“I will work with proper modesty,” Ms Takaichi said.<\/p>\n

\"Sanae<\/p>\n

Ms Takaichi has won the LDP leadership after narrowly losing last year’s ballot to Mr Ishiba. (AP: Kim Kyung-Hoon\/Pool)<\/p>\n

Her main rival, Shinjiro Koizumi, is the son of former maverick prime minister and neoliberal reformer, Junichiro Koizumi.<\/p>\n

He’s long been touted as a future prime minister and a consensus-builder.<\/p>\n

But his support dropped last year after a series of poor interviews, including telling media he regarded climate change policy as “sexy”.<\/p>\n

As agriculture minister, his image improved as he tackled the country’s rice shortage.<\/p>\n

“I have grown,” he told the party faithful before the final party vote.<\/p>\n

“I faced my own inadequacies and immaturity.”<\/p>\n

The position of prime minister now needs to be approved by the parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan is set to get its first female prime minister, after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party voted Sanae…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4268,43,941,54395,11462,120176,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-189324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-liberal-democratic-party","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}