Japan's first female leader is an ultraconservative star

Sanae Takaichi, a star of ultraconservative Japanese politics and a rare woman to rise in its male-dominated hierarchy, has been elected the country’s first female prime minister.

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Takaichi, 64, is also the first woman to lead the Liberal Democratic Party that has dominated Japan’s postwar politics almost without interruption.

She admires former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is a proponent of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative vision for Japan. A China hawk, she is a regular at Yasukuni Shrine, seen by China, the two Koreas and other Asian victims of Japan’s World War II aggression as a place that glorifies the country’s wartime past.

The leader of a country that ranks poorly internationally for gender equality, Takaichi had rarely mentioned the issue during the campaign. She did remark after winning the presidency of the ruling party: “Now that the LDP has its first female president, its scenery will change a little.”