Is Japan ready for heavy metal politics under its new leader?

Sanae Takaichi's embrace of risk might be just what Tokyo needs

- GEAROID REIDY

Sanae Takaichi has just been confirmed as Japan's first female prime minister. But more important than her gender might be her taste for headbanging in music and politics.

In what has been a rock-and-roller-coaster two weeks, she unexpectedly emerged as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), swiftly followed by her coalition partner abandoning their longtime alliance. What came next was a flurry of speculation that she might join the very short list of party leaders who never became prime minister. But on Tuesday, she made history after a frantic realignment of governing parties.

One of the few things the world knows about Takaichi is her fondness for heavy-metal music. A former drummer in a group, she's said the likes of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest relieve her stress. She had plenty to deal with over the past 10 days, starting with the rupture with coalition ally Komeito and the brief emergence of pretenders ready to snatch a premiership that looked like hers. But she pulled off a turn-it-up-to-Il coup by securing the support of the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, an Osaka-based upstart that commands politics in the city.