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Amid a recent debate for the leadership of Japan's dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), hopefuls were encouraged to speak in English. The right-wing figure kept her remarks concise: “Japan is back,” she announced. Yet her triumph on Saturday furthermore signals the advent of a new Japan: 80 years after the end of the global conflict, the country is set to get its initial woman premier.

A Right-Wing Victory

The 64-year-old rightwinger, who has referenced Margaret Thatcher in her mission to build a “resilient and successful” Japan, defeated her liberal challenger, Shinjiro Koizumi, in a runoff election at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo.

In contrast to many of her recent predecessors, Takaichi is certain of the premier's role when parliament convenes on 15 October. The LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, have surrendered control in both houses of the Diet over the previous twelve months and will need other parties' ballots for Takaichi to be approved – although observers consider that is practically guaranteed.

The result is a comeback for Takaichi, who last year lost against the outgoing prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba.

Her run for the top weakened this week after backlash of her baseless statements, made during a discussion, that non-Japanese were mistreating “sacred” deer in Nara, where she has been an MP since 1993.

Philosophical Ties

Takaichi’s win signifies a victory for the hardline faction of the LDP, which has spent the previous year regrouping under the less extreme Ishiba.

She has a strong political bond with the ex-leader Shinzo Abe, murdered in 2022, holding his controversial stances on Japan’s wartime conduct – a position that could strain relations with Japan’s regional partners.

Takaichi has been opposed to China and makes regular pilgrimages to Yasukuni, a temple in Tokyo that pays tribute to Japan’s war dead, including condemned offenders. She has displayed aligned traditional values on societal issues: she rejects marriage equality and permitting partners to use individual family names – a proposal popular with voters that she says would damage conventional morals. She is just as resistant of the concept of reigning empresses.

Financial and Border Strategies

Abe also looms large in her economic policy. Takaichi has said she favors aggressive public spending to revitalize the world’s fourth-largest GDP, and has floated the idea of revising a commercial agreement with the US in which Donald Trump approved reduced duties on Japanese cars and other items in exchange for $550bn in Japanese investment.

Her focus on migration – a topic that consumed the initial half of a 15-minute election address – is regarded as an attempt to regain voters who left the LDP in public ballots last October and this July in favor of small conservative groups, including the rising Sanseito.

In her campaign Takaichi demanded controls on foreign buyers buying property and a crackdown on undocumented migration – a stance shared by her four opponents.

Private Life and Past

A supporter of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, Takaichi performed as a drummer in a rock group while at university and counts scuba diving and watching martial arts among her interests.