Japan’s First Female Leader Is An Ultraconservative Star From A Male-Dominated Party

TOKYO (AP) — Sanae Takaichi, a star of ultraconservative Japanese politics and a rare woman who rose through the male-dominated hierarchy, has been elected as the country’s first female prime minister.

Takaichi, 64, is also the first woman to lead the Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated Japan’s postwar politics almost uninterruptedly.

He admired the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and a defender former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Conservative vision for Japan. A Chinese hawk, he’s a regular too Yasukuni Shrine, China is seen by the two Koreas and other Asian victims of Japan’s World War II aggression as a place that celebrates the country’s wartime past.

Takaichi, the leader of a country that ranks poorly internationally for gender equality, rarely touched on the issue during the campaign. After winning the presidency of the ruling party, she said: “Now that she is the first female president of the LDP, the landscape will change a little bit.”

First elected to parliament from her hometown of Nara in 1993, she served in key party and government posts, including minister of economic security, internal affairs and gender equality, though her diplomatic experience is thin.

A stronger military, more fiscal spending for growth, supporting nuclear fusion, cybersecurity and Tougher policies on immigration.

As a student, Takaichi was a drummer in a heavy metal band and rode a motorcycle.

He says he is a workaholic who prefers working at home rather than going out and socializing. But he says he is making efforts to connect more with colleagues after two unsuccessful bids to lead the LDP.

He asked all party MPs to “work like horses”.

“I’m going to abandon the word ‘work-life balance.’ I’m going to work, work, work and work,” she said in comments that sparked strong, if mixed, reactions online.

Female MPs in the LDP are often overlooked in ministerial posts or pushed aside if they speak out about diversity and gender equality. Only women keep it It holds about 15% of the seats in Japan’s lower house, the strongest of the two houses of parliament. Only two of Japan’s 47 governors are women.

Takaichi has avoided talking about gender issues in the past, sticking to the old-fashioned views favored by male party leaders.

He has pledged to significantly increase the number of women in his government but also backs the imperial family. inheritance for men onlyand opposes both gay marriage and amending a 19th-century law requiring married couples to have these rights. same surname.

“Ms. Takaichi’s policies are extremely hawkish, and I doubt she will consider policies to recognize diversity,” said Chiyako Sato, a political commentator and senior writer for the Mainichi newspaper.

Takaichi promoted financial support for women’s health and fertility treatment as part of the LDP’s policy to enable women to fulfill their traditional roles of being good mothers and wives. But she also acknowledged struggling with menopause symptoms and emphasized the need to educate men about women’s health to help women at school and at work.

Takaichi is expected to shift the government to the right, especially after forming an alliance with the right-wing Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin no Kai. The previous partner, the Buddhist-backed moderate Komeito, left the coalition in protest at Takaichi’s ultra-conservative views.

He resisted acknowledging Japanese wartime aggression and cruelty and denied the use of coercion against Korean workers and women held as sex slaves for Japanese troops. It was part of a campaign to remove references to wartime sexual slavery from school textbooks.

Analysts say his revisionist views could complicate relations with Beijing and Seoul. Last week, apparently to avoid tension, Takaichi sent a religious ornament to celebrate Yasukuni’s autumn festival instead of visiting the temple in person.