So far, since 1885, Japan had had 80 prime ministers, all male. The glass ceiling broke on October 21, when Sanae Takaichi became the Asian country’s first female head of government.
In recent days, Takaichi had unexpectedly emerged as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, a position that usually, but is not always a given, paves the way for leadership of the executive. At the end of laborious negotiations between Sanae Takaichi and the president of the conservative Ishin Party, Hirofumi Yoshimura, the two parties concluded a coalition agreement on October 20. The LDP had to agree to make Osaka – the historic heart of Ishin – an emergency capital in the event of a disaster in Tokyo and to reduce the number of deputies by 10%. The two parties also agreed to reform social security, relaunch nuclear power and act in favor of the birth rate.
Ambitious and a declared admirer of the “iron lady” Margaret Thatcher, Takaishi, 64, who has been a minister several times in the past, is an exponent of the most conservative wing of the social democratic party. Therefore her arrival at the helm of the government is not expected to improve the situation of women in a Japan classified by the World Economic Forum in 118th place out of 148 in terms of gender equality. According to some analysts, her victory certainly does not represent a success from the point of view of the feminist movement in Japan. The new prime minister has less than progressive positions on gender equality: in the past, she expressed herself in favor of only male succession in the imperial family and against the possibility for married women to keep their maiden name. Takaichi is also against same-sex marriage.
It remains to be seen how solid the new government will be, which does not have the numbers in parliament to implement measures without seeking alliances. Furthermore, Takaishi finds himself at the helm of a very fragile party, weakened by several scandals. A first test for Takaishi will be the meeting with Donald Trump scheduled for October 27th. Takaichi said he wanted “frank discussions” with Donald Trump, adding that he looked forward to discussing Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Ukraine and bilateral issues.
As he wrote Japan Times“one of the few things the world knows about Takaichi is her passion for heavy metal music. A former band drummer, she said artists like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest help her relieve stress.”
