Takaichi tipped for thumping poll win

Japan votes in snap elections Sunday with polls pointing to a resounding win for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s conservatives after a honeymoon start for the country’s first woman leader.

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But having angered China and rattled markets in her three months so far, it is unclear what a more confident and secure Ms Takaichi will mean for the region or Asia's number two economy.

The arch-conservative Takaichi, 64, a heavy metal drummer in her youth and an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, became Japan’s fifth premier in as many years in October.

This followed a string of calamitous elections for the once-mighty Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), leaving it short of a majority in both houses of parliament.

With ordinary Japanese, especially younger ones, Ms Takaichi has got offto aflier, becoming something ofa fashion icon and a hit on social media.

“It’s not just because she’s a woman... overall, it’s because she championed the idea of a society where the people can have hope for the future,’ highschool student Makoto Hara, 17, told AEP journalists.

Her tough talk on immigration appears, for now, to have snuffed out the rise of the populist “Japanese first” Sanseito party.

“The words she uses are easy to understand,’ Mikitaka Masuyama, professor of Japanese politics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), told AFP.