TOKYO – Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, was elected Japan’s first female prime minister in parliament on Tuesday, backed by the party’s new coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, 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.
Later in the day, new Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara announced the list of Cabinet members, such as Satsuki Katayama, a fiscally dovish LDP lawmaker who became Japan’s first female finance minister, and Kimi Onoda, a hawkish politician on security issues.
“This Cabinet is a Cabinet that can make decisions and advance,” Takaichi said at her first press conference as prime minister, vowing to “work at full blast, boldly, without fear of change.”
“It is a severe and hard start by minority ruling parties, but I will never give up,” she said.
Expectations had been high that Takaichi might try to showcase a sense of renewal for the LDP-led government by appointing several female ministers, but in the end, only three women, including herself, joined the 19-member Cabinet, fewer than the record of five.
Onoda was named economic security minister and holds a concurrent post as minister responsible for policies on foreigners.
Takaichi was officially sworn in by Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo after the parliamentary vote.
She picked Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator with the United States, as trade minister to ensure continuity in bilateral talks, and offered major posts to her four rivals in the October LDP leadership election, signaling her intention to project party unity through the new Cabinet.
No JIP lawmakers took up any ministerial post as in their coalition agreement, but Takashi Endo, the party’s Diet Affairs Committee head, was tapped as one of the five advisers to Takaichi.
In the 465-member lower house, 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 six independents having supported her.
Takaichi faced a runoff in the 248-member 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 needs cooperation from 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.
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 Monday to form a coalition, pledging to unite behind Takaichi in the prime ministerial vote.
Takaichi gave the post of defense minister to Shinjiro Koizumi, while Toshimitsu Motegi was picked as foreign minister. The two were among her rivals in the LDP leadership race.
The two others were then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, who was tapped as internal affairs and communications minister, and Takayuki Kobayashi, already appointed as the LDP’s policy chief.
Hitoshi Kikawada, a former senior vice minister at the Cabinet Office and a close aide to Takaichi, was named as minister in charge of child policy, the declining birthrate and related issues.
Jiro Akama, a former senior vice minister at the internal affairs ministry, became head of the National Public Safety Commission.
Takaichi hopes to deliver her policy speech at the lower house on Friday.
Just days after her inauguration, Takaichi will be swamped with a series of diplomatic events and is expected to make her international debut at Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related meetings in Malaysia later this weekend, government sources said.
Next Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump is set to visit Japan for talks the following day with Takaichi, who is also scheduled to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit from Oct. 31 in South Korea, the sources added.
The following is the lineup of the Cabinet formed by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday.
Prime Minister
Sanae Takaichi 64 (F)
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister
Yoshimasa Hayashi 64
Justice Minister
Hiroshi Hiraguchi 77
Foreign Minister
Toshimitsu Motegi 70
Finance Minister
Minister for financial services
Minister in charge of special measures on taxation and subsidy review
Satsuki Katayama 66 (F)
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister
Yohei Matsumoto 52
Health, Labor and Welfare Minister
Kenichiro Ueno 60
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister
Norikazu Suzuki 43
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister
Minister in charge of the response to the economic impact caused by the nuclear accident
Minister for green transformation
Minister in charge of industrial competitiveness
Minister in charge of world expositions
Minister for the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corp.
Ryosei Akazawa 64
Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister
Minister in charge of water cycle policy
Minister in charge of the World Horticultural Exhibition Yokohama 2027
Yasushi Kaneko 64
Environment Minister
Minister for nuclear emergency preparedness
Hirotaka Ishihara 61
Defense Minister
Shinjiro Koizumi 44
Chief Cabinet Secretary
Minister in charge of mitigating the impact of U.S. forces in Okinawa
Minister in charge of the abduction issue
Minoru Kihara 56
Digital Transformation Minister
Minister in charge of digital administrative and fiscal reform
Minister in charge of cybersecurity
Minister in charge of administrative reform
Minister in charge of the national civil service system
Minister for cybersecurity
Hisashi Matsumoto 63
Reconstruction Minister
Minister in charge of comprehensive policy coordination for revival from the nuclear accident at Fukushima
Minister in charge of the preparation of establishing the disaster management agency
Minister in charge of building national resilience
Takao Makino 66
Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission
Minister in charge of territorial issues
Minister for disaster management
Minister for ocean policy
Jiro Akama 57
Minister for Okinawa and Northern Territories affairs
Minister for consumer affairs and food safety
Minister for policies related to children
Minister for measures for declining birthrate
Minister for youth’s empowerment
Minister for gender equality
Minister for regional revitalization
Minister for Ainu related policies
Minister for coexistence and mutual assistance
Minister in charge of women’s empowerment
Minister in charge of cohesive society
Minister in charge of regional future strategy
Hitoshi Kikawada 55
Minister in charge of Japan’s growth strategy
Minister in charge of wage increase
Minister in charge of startups
Minister in charge of social security reform
Minister in charge of infectious disease crisis management
Minister for economic and fiscal policy
Minister for regulatory reform
Minoru Kiuchi 60
Minister in charge of economic security
Minister in charge of promoting society of well-ordered and harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals
Minister for “cool Japan” strategy
Minister for intellectual property strategy
Minister for science and technology policy
Minister for space policy
Minister for artificial intelligence strategy
Minister for economic security
Kimi Onoda 42 (F)
————————–
Notes: (F) denotes female ministers.
AloJapan.com