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In a current debate for the leadership of Japan's dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), hopefuls were invited to address in English. Sanae Takaichi made her comments brief: “Japan is back,” she announced. However her victory on Saturday additionally marks the emergence of a different Japan: many years after the end of the world war, the land is ready to get its initial woman premier.

Triumph for Conservatives

The veteran rightwinger, who has cited Margaret Thatcher in her mission to build a “resilient and successful” Japan, beat her liberal challenger, Shinjiro Koizumi, in a final ballot at the LDP main office in Tokyo.

Unlike many of her immediate forerunners, Takaichi is certain of the top position when parliament convenes on 15 October. The LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, have fallen short in the two assemblies of the Diet over the last year and will depend on other parties' ballots for Takaichi to be confirmed – although observers think that is all but assured.

Her win is vindication for Takaichi, who last year lost against the former prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba.

Her campaign for the leadership stumbled this week after objections of her unsupported allegations, made during a forum, that overseas visitors were physically abusing “holy” deer in Nara, where she has been an MP since 1993.

Ideological Connections

Takaichi’s win signifies a success for the right of the LDP, which has spent the last twelve months recovering under the more moderate Ishiba.

She has a strong political bond with the late premier Shinzo Abe, murdered in 2022, sharing his revisionist views on Japan’s wartime conduct – a position that could cause friction with Japan’s neighbours.

Takaichi has been critical of China and frequently visits to Yasukuni, a temple in Tokyo that honours Japan’s fallen soldiers, including convicted war criminals. She has displayed aligned traditional values on social policy: she disapproves of same-sex marriage and permitting spouses to use individual family names – a step supported by voters that she says would damage established norms. She is just as resistant of the concept of female monarchs.

Financial and Border Strategies

Abe also casts a shadow in her financial strategy. Takaichi has said she favors bold government expenditure to stimulate the world’s fourth-largest GDP, and has raised the possibility of revising a commercial agreement with the US in which Donald Trump agreed to cut import taxes on Japanese autos and additional goods in exchange for $550bn in Japanese investment.

Her emphasis on immigration – a subject that took up the initial half of a brief campaign speech – is viewed as an effort to recapture voters who deserted the LDP in national elections last October and this July in preference for small conservative groups, including the rising Sanseito.

During her political drive Takaichi demanded limits on non-Japanese buyers buying property and a crackdown on unauthorized entry – a view shared by her rival candidates.

Personal Interests and Background

A supporter of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, Takaichi played drums in a musical ensemble while at university and lists underwater exploration and watching martial arts among her pastimes.