Ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi on track to become Japan's first female prime minister

Japan's governing party leader, Sanae Takaichi, is on track to become the country's first female prime minister, after finding a badly needed replacement for a crucial partner that left her Liberal Democratic Party's coalition.

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Takaichi, 64, would replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tuesday’s parliamentary vote. If she>s successful, it would end Japan>s three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the coalition>s loss in the July parliamentary election.

The moderate centrist Komeito party split from the LDP after a 26-year-long coalition. The move by Komeito came days after Takaichi’s election as president of her party, and it forced her into a desperate search for a replacement to secure votes so that she can become prime minister.

The Buddhist-backed Komeito left after raising concerns about her ultraconservative politics and the LDP’s lax response to slush fund scandals that led to their consecutive election defeats and loss of majority in both houses.