Taiwanese President Lai Cheng-te welcomed his election, saying he was a staunch friend of Taiwan.
Japan’s ruling party elected conservative nationalist Sanae Takaichi as its leader, putting her on track to become the country’s first female prime minister in a shock move for investors and neighbors.
The Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for most of the postwar period, chose Takaichi, 64, to win back the trust of a public angry at rising prices and to appeal to opposition groups who have promised stimulus and restrictions on migrants.
A parliamentary vote to choose a replacement for the outgoing Shigeru Ishiba is expected on October 15. Takaichi is favored because the ruling coalition holds the most seats.
It is pertinent to mention that former Japanese Prime minister Fumio Kishida had pledged to take urgent steps to tackle the country’s declining birth rate, saying it was “now or never” for the world’s oldest society.
While Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe had been dead after he was shot at a campaign event.
Party inherited in crisis
Takaichi, the only woman among five LDP candidates, defeated a challenge from more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, who was bidding to become the youngest modern leader.
Takaichi, a former minister of economic security and internal affairs, took over the crisis-ridden party with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world’s fourth-largest economy.
Various other parties, including the expansionist Democratic Party for the People and the anti-immigration Senseito, have been steadily luring voters, especially young people, away from the LDP.
The LDP and its coalition partner lost their majorities in both houses under Ishiba over the past year, triggering his resignation.
“Recently, I have heard strong voices from across the country that we do not know what the LDP means anymore,” Takaichi said in a speech before the second round of voting. “That sense of urgency struck me. I wanted to turn people’s worries about their daily lives and the future into hope.”
Takaichi, who says her hero is Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, offers a bolder vision for change than Koizumi and is likely to be more disruptive.
A supporter of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” strategy to boost the economy with aggressive spending and easy monetary policy, she has previously criticized the Bank of Japan’s interest rate hikes.
Such spending shifts could worry investors about one of the world’s biggest debt holders.
Takaichi’s election has weakened the chances of a BOJ rate hike this month, which markets had priced at about a 60% chance before the vote.
Trump discussed renegotiating the trade deal
Takaichi has also raised the possibility of renegotiating an investment deal with US President Donald Trump that would have reduced punitive tariffs in return for Japanese taxpayer-backed investments.
US Ambassador to Japan George Glass congratulated Takaichi on his win, posting on X that he looked forward to strengthening the Japan-US partnership “on all fronts”.
But his nationalist positions – such as his regular visits to the Yasukuni Shrine for Japan’s war dead, which some Asian countries see as a symbol of its past militarism – could anger neighbours such as South Korea and China.
He is a supporter of revising Japan’s post-war pacifist constitution and suggested this year that Japan could form a “quasi-security alliance” with Taiwan, the democratically-ruled island claimed by China.
Taiwanese President Lai Cheng-te welcomed his election, saying he was a staunch friend of Taiwan.
She said in a statement that she hopes that under the leadership of the new (LDP) President Takaichi, Taiwan and Japan can further deepen their partnership in areas such as economic trade, security and technical cooperation.
If elected prime minister, Takaichi said she would travel abroad more regularly than her predecessor to spread the word that “Japan is back!”
“I have finished my work-life balance and I will work, work, work,” Takaichi said in her victory speech.
