Oct 5, 2025
How are we feeling about Takaichi as LDP President (and likely PM)?
The big news from yesterday is that Sanae Takaichi won the LDP party president vote, which means she's the person most likely to then be PM once the extraordinary session of the Diet takes place. How do you feel about this? Are you thinking it's Japan taking a step in the right direction by having their first ever female PM, or are you like me and a little skeptical of some of her conservative policy stances?
Best Answer
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on Oct 6
The first female prime minister is HUGE. But this woman as the first, doesn't bode well for us. Us as women, us as foreigners, us as society. Like you, I am very skeptical. On the one hand she has pledged to improve gender balance in her cabinet to and introduce family-friendly policies, on the other, she opposes female ascension to the throne and women keeping their own surname after marriage. Like Japan, she is a mix of contrasts!
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on Oct 5
Mixed feelings here. On the one hand, elevating a woman to a leadership role is a step forward and may open the door to others. Takaichi's campaign mentions increasing the representation of women in government. On the other hand, her remarks about alleged deer-kicking foreigners are disappointing not just because of sensationalizing crime by foreigners. In her response to an Asahi interview, she appears to conflate foreign visitors with foreign residents, discussing "coexistence." To my mind, welcoming tourists, building a plan to alleviate overtourism, and taking action to integrate foreign residents into Japanese life are the words I want to hear. All separate issues.
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on Oct 10
I find it very interesting that the yen fell to its lowest point in months -as reuters put it "Japanese yen fell to its weakest level against the dollar since mid-February on Thursday as the newly elected leader of Japan's ruling party Sanae Takaichi failed to instill confidence in the market about the direction of the currency"
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on Oct 29
I agree with the mixed feelings sentiment. I do think she is an interesting person although I don't know much yet. It sounds like things will be conservative, similar to the Abe era, and most people will ignore politics as usual. The good news is that things take forever to change here, so it's unlikely that any of her unsavory campaign ideas will ever come to fruition.
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