Sanae Takaichi to become Japan’s first female prime minister | DW News
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has elected Sanai Takayichi as its new leader. The China Hawk, seen right here, won the leadership vote, putting her on course to become Japan’s first female prime minister. She’s charged with reviving her alien party as a new anti-immigration group in mixed gains in the polls. Takayuchi beat her closest rival in a runoff after none of the five candidates won a majority in the first round. A vote in parliament to elect the next prime minister is expected to take place later this month. Let’s get more on this from journalist Sonia Blashka in the Japanese capital. Hello Sai well should say Sai Takai is on course to becoming Japan’s first female prime minister. What can you tell us about her? Well, she’s got a very long experience as a politician. She’s been in the political scene since 1993 and has held a number of cabinet posts. She’s known as a very conservative hardliner. Uh part of the reason why people see her as someone who can make decisions and uh won’t uh you know look to too much towards consensus but will actually push through her agenda. She’s a member of a nationalist lobby group called Nepon Kaiigi um who wants to return or lead Japan back to more conservative values, traditional values um especially when it comes to the family for example. I mean uh she is on track to becoming the first female prime minister in Japan. However, her political agenda is far from being feminist. On the contrary, she opposes, for example, separate family names. um she is also against female succession to the imperial throne. So um the new female prime minister if that happens um is is a woman in the post but her agenda is quite different and very much dominated by her conservative stance. H interesting. Now one of her main tasks right will be to revive her liberal democratic party. It’s not doing so well in the polls. Why is that? I mean, for the longest time, people have been complaining about the the big gap between the policies and real life, so to speak. Um, prices have been rising in Japan. When you go to the supermarket, there’s a clear difference. And people are just feeling that, you know, politicians, they don’t really care about us. They don’t really care about the regular people. They’re only interested in themselves. And that was compounded by scandals surrounding slush funds and kickbacks for politicians and people lost a lot of trust because of these issues. Right. Right. This vote is being carefully watched by China, the United States, other countries. What do we know at this point about Takayichi’s foreign policy approach? You mentioned it earlier. She’s considered a hawk when it comes to defense issues. Her visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine in the center of Tokyo have raised eyebrows in in China and South Korea because class A war criminals are enshrined there. And it remains to be seen whether she will continue visiting the shrine as a sitting prime minister. The only one that’s ever done that in that position was Shinszu Abin in 2013 and that has caused big issues in East Asia. So, so yeah, also with regard to for example, Japan taking the responsibility for things that’s done in the Second World War, um she is against official uh apologies by Japan. So, it remains to be seen whether she will soften her stance once she becomes prime minister or not. Right. Another key issue, migration. It’s been it’s been, you know, a key issue for for her and the right-wing populist. But how significant is the current influx of foreign nationals into the country? Why is that a big deal? I mean, compared to other countries, it’s it’s still really small. For example, in 2000, uh the percentage was 1.3 uh 1.2% of the population were foreign residents and now it’s gone up to three. That is a lot for Japan. Um but still compared to other countries, uh quite little. Um I think it’s what what is happening at the same time is the influx of tourists. um leading to over tourism in certain areas and it’s just something that Japan has not seen before. It’s not is not used to and some populist politicians have used that to further their agenda and spreading wrong information about uh crimes being perpetrated which are not backed up by actual data. Right. Journalist Sonia Blask in Tokyo. Thank you. You’re welcome.
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader. The China hawk won the leadership vote putting her on course to become Japan’s first female prime minister. She is charged with reviving her ailing party as a new anti-immigration grouping makes gains in the polls. Takaichi beat her closest rival in a run-off after none of the five candidates won a majority in the first round. A vote in parliament to elect the next prime minister is expected to take place later this month.
00:00 Japan’s ruling party chooses new leader
00:35 DW speaks with journalist Sonja Blaschke in Tokyo
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