Japan’s Thatcher

Ms Takaichi offers a new vision of Japan - Sanae Takaichi’s landslide victory in the snap polls over the weekend is likely to profoundly alter the dynamics of Japanese politics and Indo-Pacific geopolitics.

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A major reason for this lies in Ms Takaichi’s background. She is not only the first woman Prime Minister in a traditionally patriarchal society with deeply embedded gender roles, she has risen through the ranks without the advantages of entrenched dynastic politics, which has marked postwar Japanese politics. A protégé of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Ms Takaichi hails from a modest background, the daughter of a policewoman and a machinery maker. A conservative and ultra-nationalist, she sees herself as Japan’s Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman Prime Minister, who came from a similar background and whose reforming zeal also altered Britain in lasting, if not always desirable, ways.