First female prime minister makes history - but appoints only two women to cabinet

Sanae Takaichi made history yesterday when she became Japan's first female prime minister. But hours after she was elected by MPs, it was evident that female underrepresentation in the country's political establishment would continue when she appointed just two women to her cabinet.

- Justin McCurry

Takaichi had promised levels of female representation in her government comparable to those in Iceland, Finland and Norway.

Satsuki Katayama, who became the first woman to hold the post of finance minister, was joined by Kimi Onoda as economic security minister in Takaichi's 19-member cabinet.

Six of Iceland's 11 cabinet members are women, including the prime minister, Kristrún Frostadóttir, and in Finland women occupy 11 of 19 cabinet posts.

Takaichi's immediate predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, appointed two women to his cabinet but the record is five, under Ishiba's predecessor Fumio Kishida.

Takaichi, an ultraconservative whose Liberal Democratic party (LDP) has formed a coalition with a minor party, Ishin, that shares her hawkish approach to defence and revisionist views on wartime history, has said she wants to raise awareness of women's health and has spoken about her own experience of menopause.