Ultraconservative is likely to be Japan’s first female premier

In a country that ranks poorly internationally in gender equality, the new president of Japan's long-governing Liberal Democrats, and likely next prime minister, is an ultraconservative woman in a male-dominated party — whom critics call an obstacle to women’s advancement.

- BY MARI YAMAGUCHI

SANAE TAKAICHI is not expected to blaze any trails for women's rights.

(TORU HANAI Bloomberg)

Sanae Takaichi, 64, who would be the country’s first female prime minister, admires late former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is a proponent of late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative vision for Japan.

Takaichi is the first female president of Japan's predominantly male ruling party that has dominated Japan's postwar politics almost without interruption.

She hardly touched on gender issues during the campaign, but on Saturday, as she tried out the party president’s chair and posed for a photo as is customary for the newly elected leader, Takaichi said: “Now that the LDP has its first female president, its scenery will change a little.”