Who does Takaichi want to be “Thatcher of Japan”? | news

She entered the history of Japan as the first woman to assume the position of Prime Minister in a country that is very conservative of traditional values, after she passed the parliamentary vote with a comfortable majority in the first round, obtaining 237 votes, exceeding the required number of 233 votes in the 465 seats in the Council. Her main competitor, Yoshi Hiro Noda (leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party), came in second place with 149 votes.

Sanae Takaichi is the fifth prime minister in Japan in two years, which indicates a stifling internal political crisis facing the country. It will not be a comfortable presidency on a bed of silk, as it has a busy local and international agenda awaiting it, the most tense of which will be the visit of US President Donald Trump next week.

She considers her ideal and favorite political figure to be the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was known as the “Iron Lady” and she wants to be the “Iron Lady” in Tokyo.

Takaichi was born in Nara Prefecture in 1961. Her father was an employee at a company affiliated with the automobile giant Toyota, and her mother was a police officer in Nara. She attended Kobe University, the oldest university in the country. After graduation, she entered Matsushita Institute.

In her youth, she was a drummer in a heavy metal band and was interested in motorcycles. Politics was not part of her upbringing or family environment. In order to learn more about American political life, I moved to the United States in 1978 and worked in the office of Democratic Representative Patricia Schroeder, who is known for her sharp criticism of Tokyo.

After returning to Japan, Takaichi worked as a parliamentary analyst with knowledge of American politics, then became a broadcaster on TV Asahi in 1989.

Takaichi ran in her first parliamentary elections in 1992 as an independent, which she lost. But after joining the Liberal Democratic Party in 1996, she succeeded in entering Parliament to be one of the conservative voices within the party, which she remained represented in Parliament between 1993 and 2003.

She held several government positions, including Minister of Economic Security, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, and Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, which she held for a long period.

“Iron Lady”

Japan’s new prime minister is known as an ultra-conservative, often declaring that “my goal is to become the Iron Lady.” She belongs to the right-wing of the Liberal Democratic Party, which hopes with her election to regain the support of the conservative base.

Takaichi is close to the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and has pledged to revive his “Abenomics” economic vision based on large public spending and low interest rates. It also called for easing the constitutional restrictions imposed on the Japanese Self-Defense Forces that prevent them from possessing offensive capabilities.

Sanae Takaichi becomes the first woman in Japanese political history to assume prime minister… Details of the topic with Al Jazeera correspondent Fadi Salama pic.twitter.com/KYKd4kwIoD

– Al Jazeera Channel (@AJArabic) October 22, 2025

It adopts policies supportive of nuclear energy, keeping nuclear energy at the core of the country’s energy strategy, while reducing the focus on readily available renewable energy sources such as solar energy.

Politically, Takaichi has a hard-line stance towards China. She also supports reviewing Japan’s pacifist constitution, specifically Article 9, which gives up the country’s right to wage wars, and she has a clear inclination towards Taiwan, which may displease Beijing.

Nationalism

In fact, Takaichi did not hide her overt nationalism, adopting a position on foreigners that matches the position of the far right in Europe on immigrants. The New York Times reported that during her leadership campaign she “tapped into a wave of anti-immigration sentiment” and that she relied on “anti-immigrant rhetoric.”

Takaichi’s first task will be to secure the support of at least one opposition party to form a majority, and if she succeeds in concluding an agreement with the opposition, her government will face a number of challenges, including an aging population, a huge national debt, growing concerns about immigration, persistent inflation, and a faltering economy that she intends to support through increased public spending and tax breaks.

And also managing security and trade relations with President Trump, which Takaichi had reservations about and said on a television program that renegotiation is “not ruled out,” referring to Japan’s pledge to invest $550 billion in the United States.

Despite her frank positions on China and South Korea, Takaichi realizes at the same time the necessity of maintaining good relations with them, as well as with the United States, because all of them constitute major destinations for Japanese exports.

Takaichi is subject to Russian sanctions imposed in 2022 when she was head of the party’s political council, in response to Tokyo’s policies towards Russia.

Japanese politics is not expected to witness a radical shift during Takaichi’s era, but her election ends a political vacuum in the country that has lasted 3 months since the disastrous defeat suffered by the Liberal Democratic Party in last July’s elections.