Sanae Takaichi becomes Japan’s first female prime minister | BBC News
Now to Japan where the lower house of Japan’s parliament has appointed the country’s first female prime minister, Sanai Takachi. The leader of the Liberal Democrat party will however form a minority government. Analysts say Mr. Kaichi’s election is a tactical shift by the RDP to counter the farright Sansito party which has been rising in popularity. Her immediate challenges would be to address Japan’s high inflation and cost of living. while I’m joined by our tech correspondent Shima Khalil. Uh Sharma, it is a historic moment, isn’t it? Tell us about Sai Tachi. It is a historic moment because for the first time, Japan has a woman at the helm. Sai Takayichi is now Japan’s iron lady, which is a longtime ambition of hers being an admirer of um the late Margaret Thatcher. But with her leadership, it means that Japan’s politics has taken a shift to the right. Sonai Takayichi is a staunch conservative with long-standing stances, for example, against women having keeping their maiden name after marriage. She long opposed uh a legislation that would allow married couples to have separate last names. She’s opposed same-sex marriage. She is against women being in the line of succession in the imperial family. And during her campaigning for the leadership for the LDP, she has taken a staunch and a hardline stance against immigration, saying that she wants to stomp out and uh give uh harsher uh punishments for uh immigrants or foreigners that break the rules. And as you’ve said, it’s all taking this direction to appeal to the more conservative electorate that has lately taken to other parties like Sansto. Yes. op the optics of this for young women and girls watching is quite remarkable to see the first women to become uh first woman to become Japan’s leader but the core of the politics is the same. I was speaking to a group of young women and one of them told me that it’s hard to identify with her politics because essentially she’s perpetuating the patriarchal society being compliant to the politics of the women and of the men. Another one told me that we shouldn’t put her on a pedestal because essentially she’s not going against the grind. She’s again saying what the old men politics um has said. So when it comes to women’s issues, don’t expect to see much change and expect more conservative and more right-leaning policies um with her in power. Just tell her tell us a bit more about the immigration question. Why has it become so important and also about her position on China? That’s right. A couple of things I think with immigration it it has become this issue because in the upper house elections in the campaigning of the upper house elections that was a few months ago the right-wing party Santo has used it as a main talking point conflating the huge number um of of tourists that have come to Japan and it has seen record numbers with the immigration with the residents the foreign residents and the immigrants and essentially portrayed this false narrative that immigrants are coming to take jobs. They’re they’ve been given preferential treatment and all of it is not true. But remember that Japan is a very homogeneous society. It’s a very conservative society. So there is concern among the Japanese about how um immigrant uh um immigrant workers for example are going to integrate in a country that is aging and that will need immigration to sustain its economy. When it comes to foreign policy, Sai Takayichi is hawkish. China and South Korea are going to be watching and are going to be worrying about her relationship with her neighbors because remember famously she is a regular visitor to the controversial Yasukuni shrine where Japan’s war dead uh are buried but also where class A war criminals and are buried and this rubs specifically China and South Korea the wrong way. both h are watching and both have said that they will continue to work with Japan and are expecting Japan to abide by the working relationships with those two countries. Sha Khalil, thank you very much indeed. Well, I’m joined now by Professor Sajeru Takashita from the Graduate School of Management, Informatics and Innovation at the University of Shizura. Thank you very much indeed for being with us. Uh, how do you think Japan is going to change under the new prime minister? And how significant do you think it is that she’s the first woman in this job? Well, I think people have been portraying her as the first woman, first woman, right-wing, right-wing, and uh I think a lot of the Western media has probably copied what the Japanese media is saying, which is very much inclined to the left. I mean, she’s all the policies that she’s saying and trying to implement are normalizing this excessively, you know, pro-China or pro- leftwing type of movement and she’s just trying to normalize it. So, you know, I don’t find her being, you know, in the right wing region like the ones that you see in Europe, for example. So, you know, I think the she’s taking very positively. You can see the stock market just boosting because she is very clear about her policy about the expansion of fiscal policy to revive the economy and basically get things done. Look at the cabinet members. She’s literally going for old Japan which is quite different from the past prime minister which focus on feeding the vested interest of their own um you know factions. So, you know, I think um one should look at uh things with a little more neutralized eyes on her policies and and how do you think she is going to deal with uh the US and with Donald Trump in particular? Well, how is who is going to you know cope with that? Uh but you know, obviously um I think she’s an advocate of Mr. obvious policy. We’ve been very very friendly with you know the Trump administration and although one thing that’s predictable about Trump administration is that it is totally unpredictable. So you know she has to have a very good right left arm to support her which she is you know um creating in her cabinet members again you got you know very experienced people like Misan Hayesan you know all these people who were rivals you know uh on um achieving the prime ministership uh again she went for old Japan rather than you know allocating factional members the favor so uh from that point of view I think she has a pretty good support within her cabinet and and also the China question obviously Japan Japan caught very much between these two global powers. Where do you think she will take Japan on that? Like I said, normalized state and many people might portray as rightwing because compared to Mr. for example uh Ishiba and uh his regime who are very in my opinion boneless spineless policy against China for example not establishing anti-espionage law which amongst advanced nation Japan is the only nation that doesn’t have this law which is amazing in in very negative issue so she’s just trying to basically normalize to basically fight off the threat that we’re getting from our neighbors especially from China and just about her as a person she’s obviously ly won this mandate. Um she’s she’s she has an interesting, you know, personal story. She’s a former heavy metal drummer. She was a scuba diver. She’s a car enthusiast. She’s worked in television. Um very interesting figure. Yeah. I mean, and she’s also chosen a lot of interesting figure. If you look at the u the cabinet members, the uh uh security, economic security is an exboxer uh who graduated from University of Manchester. So, you know, he’s got she’s got some very interesting choice. Seriously, including Ms. Onoda. Um, so I think those are very interesting. Professor Takashita, thank you so much for being with us. This is BBC News. We are back in a few minutes.
Sanae Takaichi has been elected Japan’s prime minister by parliament, making her the first woman to hold the office.
She won a clear majority on Monday – 237 votes in the powerful Lower House and another 125 in the Upper House – as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
The 64-year-old is known as Japan’s “Iron Lady” – she’s an admirer of the UK’s former PM Margaret Thatcher and is known for her staunch conservatism.
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