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It is hard to overstate the symbolism of Sanae Takaichi’s achievement on Tuesday in becoming the first female prime minister of Japan, a country that consistently ranks poorly in global gender equality comparisons, not least in politics and business.
However, she will have precious little time to savour her historic appointment.
Takaichi is expected to make good on promises to appoint a cabinet with “Nordic” levels of women, but the challenges of office loom large as Japan’s fifth prime minister in as many years attempts to revive the fortunes of the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) with the support of an inexperienced junior coalition partner.
Takaichi’s domestic in-tray includes a cost-of-living crisis and growing disquiet over migration, which many see as the only viable solution to Japan’s looming demographic crisis.
Her diplomatic skills will come under scrutiny next week when Donald Trump arrives in Tokyo for a two-day visit; and she will have barely drawn breath before she makes her international debut at the Apec summit in South Korea.
When she secured the LDP presidency earlier this month, Takaichi inherited a deeply divided party struggling to remove the taint of a long-running funding scandal and, after seven decades of almost uninterrupted rule, a severely weakened position in both houses of parliament.
Despite internal calls for the LDP to change or suffer yet more pain at the ballot box, Takaichi’s successful bid to replace the outgoing Shigeru Ishiba as the party’s president looked more like a battle for supremacy between the party’s liberal and conservative wings than the dawn of a new era in Japanese politics.
Having abruptly lost the support of Komeito – the LDP’s centrist coalition partner for more than a quarter of a century – Takaichi was forced to rummage around in the margins to find enough votes to secure her place in history.
The arrangement with Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation party), formally announced on the eve of Tuesday’s key parliamentary vote, has been described as a marriage of convenience between conservatives committed to higher defence spending, reform of Japan’s “pacifist” postwar constitution and the introduction of tougher restrictions on immigration.
But the two parties must also avoid potential sources of conflict on economic policy that could quickly test their coalition’s resilience.
Media reports suggest that Takaichi’s LDP backers are unlikely to accept all of Ishin’s 12-point list of demands, including a 10% cut to the number of lower house seats – a move that would give it greater weight in the chamber – a two-year suspension of the 8% consumption tax charged on food, and a ban on corporate political donations.
Despite her reputation as an unapologetic conservative, Takaichi betrayed a more pragmatic streak during the LDP contest and its aftermath that could serve her well when dealing with Japan’s neighbours.
She did not mention constitutional reform – a pet project of her hawkish mentor, Shinzo Abe – and skipped the autumn festival at Yasukuni, a controversial war shrine in Tokyo, apparently to avoid a row with China, where it is viewed as a symbol of Japan’s militarist past.
Takaichi, 64, will appoint her cabinet immediately, including Satsuki Katayama as Japan’s first female finance minister, according to reports. She is also expected to appoint two of her rivals in the LDP leadership race, Toshimitsu Motegi and Shinjiro Koizumi, as foreign and defence ministers.
But with the LDP and Ishin still two seats shy of a majority, she will have to resume the search for support from non-coalition MPs to pass budgets and other legislation – another sign, according to some analysts, of her precarious hold on power.
“The era of LDP domination is over and we are entering the era of multiparty politics,” said Chiyako Sato, a political commentator and senior writer for the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
Masato Kamikubo, a professor at Ritsumeikan University, said Takaichi would be overly constrained by the transactional nature of her coalition. “There is no room for Takaichi to show her true colours. All she can do is [seek] cooperation on each policy. It’s a pathetic situation.”
