Sanae Takaichi’s victory in the 2025 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) presidential election has set her on course to become Japan’s first female prime minister. Having contested twice before, in the 2021 and 2024 LDP leadership races, and losing by a narrow margin the second time to the outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Takaichi finally secured a victory in her third attempt, defeating the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Shinjiro Koizumi.
Japan’s ruling party, the LDP, has dominated the country’s politics since the post-war era. Takaichi joined the party in 1996 and has since been elected to parliament ten times. She has previously held senior government positions, including a “record-breaking tenure” as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications under the Abe administration and Minister for Economic Security under Fumio Kishida. The parliament is expected to confirm her as Prime Minister on October 15 after a vote in the Lower House of the Diet, as opposition parties show no sign of uniting behind a single alternative candidate. However, Takaichi’s transition to prime minister will not be without challenges: she inherits a party in crisis and a country grappling with rising prices, a sluggish economy, depopulation, and regional as well as global uncertainty.
Challenges facing the LDP
The LDP faces instability after a series of electoral defeats that cost the party its majority in both houses of parliament, despite its coalition with Komeito. Years of political scandals, policy stagnation, and frustration over rising living costs, stagnant wages, and demographic decline have fuelled widespread public dissatisfaction with the ruling party. The LDP’s conservative base has also eroded, with some supporters shifting to emerging right-wing parties such as Sanseito and Democratic Party for the People (DPP).
Takaichi must regain voter trust by addressing these concerns and implementing credible policy changes, while also finalising an agreement with Komeito, the LDP’s longstanding ally. Although the two parties are expected to reach an understanding, the delay itself is telling.
Takaichi’s political stance
Komeito, a party founded with the backing of the Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, has partnered with the LDP since the 1990s, helping it maintain majority control. However, Komeito’s pacifist and other political views stand at odds with Takaichi’s staunch conservatism. The incoming Prime Minister has called for easing restrictions on Japan’s “Self-Defence Forces, which are constitutionally barred from having offensive capabilities.” She has long advocated expanding their role to strengthen national defence.
A wartime history revisionist, Takaichi regularly visits Yasukuni Shrine, viewed by most of its neighbours as a symbol of Japan’s militarism; supports the imperial family’s male-only succession; and views equal pay for men and women as a threat to traditional family values. She has also called for tougher policies on immigration recently, citing personal experiences. However, the challenging political realities and her victory have pushed the nationalist leader to adopt a softer, more pragmatic tone.
Economic vision
On the economy, Sanae Takaichi is a proponent of “Abenomics,” the economic vision introduced by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It is characterised by aggressive and expansionary fiscal stimulus, easing monetary policy, and structural reforms for the world’s fourth-largest economy. Her pro-stimulus stance is aimed at expanding government spending to facilitate investment and growth in fields such as disaster preparedness and energy, with the overall goal of economic security.
She also envisions boosting key strategic sectors like AI, semiconductors, biotechnology, and advanced medicines. Takaichi has also talked about raising the tax-free income threshold and abolishing the gasoline and diesel fuel tax. In her recent campaign, she also mentioned proposing tax breaks for companies that provide in-house childcare services, giving household support workers greater recognition, and improving care options for Japan’s ageing society.
Foreign relations and trade
In the context of Japan-U.S. bilateral relations and Trump’s recent row over tariffs, Takaichi, in late September, said that a “do-over of tariff negotiations” is not off the table, as she believes there are “unequal aspects” in the agreement. In July, after months of “fruitless negotiations and some tense moments”, Japan and the U.S. reached a deal, as a part of which Japan pledged to invest USD 550 billion in America in exchange for the Trump administration lowering tariffs on Japanese automobiles and other goods. Then, in early September, an MoU was signed clarifying which strategic industries and technologies those investments would target. Before Takaichi’s victory in the LDP presidential race, she had said that even if the administration changed, this agreement would carry over. But, if its implementation proved unfair or detrimental to Japan’s interests, there could be a “possibility of renegotiation.”
Sanae Takaichi’s rise as Japan’s first female prime minister marks an unprecedented moment in the country’s political history. Whether she can restore public faith in the LDP and steer Japan through its economic, demographic and geopolitical challenges will define not only her premiership but also Japan’s political future.
AloJapan.com