Japan gets its first female leader

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limited All rights reserved. Japan gets its first female leader, a conservative who favors a stronger military Jason Douglas , The Wall Street Journal 4 min read 21 Oct 2025, 09:03 IST Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi with members of her cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Pool via Reuters) Summary Sanae Takaichi was confirmed as prime minister days before a possible visit to Japan by President Trump, with whom she shares a hawkish stance on China. TOKYO—Sanae Takaichi was confirmed as Japan’s first female prime minister in a parliamentary vote, giving the country a new leader who advocates close ties with the U.S. and a stronger Japanese military. Her election as prime minister comes days before a possible visit to Japan by President Trump, with whom she shares conservative views and a hawkish stance on China. Tokyo hopes that affinity will help heal ties strained by Trump’s attempt to reorder global trade. Under the terms of an agreement struck in July, Japanese imports to the US now face a 15% tariff and Tokyo has agreed to invest about $550 billion in the US over the next few years. The 64-year-old Takaichi won a slim majority in the lower house during the parliamentary vote for prime minister on Tuesday in her first attempt with the help of her new government partner, the Japan Innovation Party. But she needed a finish to prevail in the upper house after only having a majority in the first vote. That hiccup was a preview of the challenges Takaichi is likely to face as prime minister because her ruling Liberal Democratic Party, even with its partner’s support, falls just short of a majority in both houses. “We are sailing under rough and difficult conditions. But I will never give up,” Takaichi said at her first press conference on Tuesday evening. In Takaichi and the Japan Innovation Party, analysts say the US will find an administration more open to boosting military spending than some previous Japanese governments. The US has pressured allies in Asia and Europe to increase defense spending to counter threats from rivals including China and Russia. Takaichi is an acolyte of the late Shinzo Abe, a former prime minister and Trump ally. She said she would tell Trump that “Japan will greatly improve its defense forces on its own” while maintaining its alliance with the US as the cornerstone of its security. Tokyo, she said, “is an indispensable partner for America’s China strategy and its Indo-Pacific strategy.” The Pentagon has said it wants U.S. allies to spend as much as 5% of annual gross domestic product on defense, a figure that is more than double the Japanese government’s current goal of raising spending to 2% of GDP by the fiscal year ending March 2028. Japan spent about $55 billion on defense in 2024, or about 1.4% of Stockholm’s GDP, according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute. Takaichi was asked about her spending target at the press conference, but did not answer directly. “The Japanese fully expect pressure from the Trump administration for them to spend more money on defense,” said David Boling, director of Japan and Asia trade at Eurasia Group, a consulting firm. “Eventually the heat is going to come down to this.” Takaichi, who played drums in a rock band and rode motorcycles in her youth, was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party earlier this month after her predecessor as both LDP leader and prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said he would resign. Ishiba, who brokered the trade deal with the US, was under pressure to step down after a year in office after consecutive election losses cost the LDP’s ruling coalition its majority in both houses of Japan’s parliament, the Diet. Takaichi’s victory on Tuesday was not smooth sailing. Komeito, the LDP’s coalition partner for 26 years, abruptly left the partnership not long after winning the LDP presidency, leaving the LDP far short of the votes needed to install Takaichi as prime minister. Komeito’s leaders said they were unhappy with her intransigent stance on rewriting political financing rules, one of its key goals. Opposition parties sensed the vulnerability of Takaichi and tried to coalesce around a rival candidate for prime minister who could beat her in the parliamentary vote. In the end, however, Takaichi persuaded the Japan Innovation Party to back her candidacy and the opposition’s push fizzled amid disagreements over policy. By choosing the conservative Takaichi as its new leader, the center-right LDP is gambling that it can improve its electoral fortunes by winning back conservative voters who abandoned the party in favor of populist right-wing upstarts such as Sanseito, which won a large number of seats in a parliamentary election in July on an anti-immigration drive. The stock market welcomed Takaichi’s rise, rising about 8% since she was elected LDP leader. Takaichi has long been a proponent of lifting government borrowing and spending to fuel growth and revive Japanese industries, some of which are under pressure in global markets from Chinese rivals. The Japan Innovation Party supports free market ideas, including lower taxes and deregulation, which if implemented could further hurt the economy. Write to Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com Get all the political news and updates on Live Mint. 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