Sanae Takaichi becomes Japan's first woman PM after parliamentary vote

Sanae Takaichi won the parliamentary vote to become Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday, making her the first woman to clinch the nation’s top leadership job.

She secured 237 votes in the more powerful lower house, bringing her four votes above the majority line needed to confirm her victory. Lawmakers who aren’t affiliated with any of the major parties including Tadashi Morishima appeared to have supported Takaichi’s bid for leadership. Shortly after that result, she proceeded to win a run-off vote in the upper house.

Takaichi’s ascension to the premiership is a historic feat in a country that has ranked low in female political representation. With that achievement out of the way, she will now face a range of challenges that include persistent inflation, a tense security environment and simmering domestic political instability.

Among her first orders of business is to cobble together a cabinet, which she is expected to unveil later Tuesday. In coming days she’ll also have a string of diplomatic events to attend to, including a visit to Japan by US President Donald Trump next week.

In the two and a half weeks since Takaichi assumed leadership of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party, she has already overseen the shock exit of its decades-long partner Komeito from their coalition. Shortly after that she secured a new partnership with another opposition group, the Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin.

Although Ishin’s support for Takaichi assured her of the premiership, the coalition is still two seats short of a majority in the lower house. That will throw into question how she’ll navigate the political currents in parliament to secure the majorities she’ll require to pass budgets and bills.

She’s already moving to unite the party by offering key party roles to her main rivals, including Shinjiro Koizumi as defense minister and Toshimitsu Motegi as foreign minister, according to local media reports.

At the same time, she’s showing some of her more fiscally aggressive colors by choosing Satsuki Katayama as the country’s first female finance minister, according to local media reports.

Her views on the economy are similar to those of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who espoused a reflationist economic platform known as “Abenomics.” Takaichi has long advocated for government spending to boost Japan’s economic growth rate and criticized the Bank of Japan for tightening monetary policy.

During her campaign for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership she took a more moderate stance, saying she doesn’t dispute the need for fiscal consolidation and would leave the specifics of monetary policy to the BOJ. But the yen has weakened and stocks have gained since her victory due to expectations of pump-priming and pressure on the central bank to refrain from rate hikes.

The slide in the yen would likely exacerbate inflation, a top concern after voters punished the LDP in two national elections over the last year for failing to halt the rising cost of living. That creates a dilemma for Takaichi if she intends to reprise a policy course that’s in line with Abenomics.

The LDP has also agreed to consider some policies touted by Ishin in order to bring the party into the coalition. These include considering a two-year cut to the sales tax on food. While that’s a cheaper alternative to cutting the tax across the board, it would come with a political risk. Governments have typically encountered stiff opposition to raising the tax even when a time frame has been laid out in advance.

Takaichi’s victory Tuesday also shows a Japan that is shifting to the right, as an increasing number of people express dissatisfaction over a sense that living standards aren’t keeping up with global trends, the influx of foreigners into the country and concern about rising security tensions in the region.