Newly elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) Sanae Takahichi celebrates her victory in the LDP leadership election in Tokyo, Japan, Saturday, October 4, 2025.
64-year-old Sanae Takahichi is preparing to become the first female prime minister in the Land of the Rising Sun. She has been approved as the new party leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP). After her candidacy is approved by the parliament, she will take office.
Five candidates competed for the position of LDP chair - two current and three former ministers. The victorious Takahichi will replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who recently announced his resignation following the LDP's poor performance in the July parliamentary elections, which resulted in the ruling coalition losing its majority in both houses.
Ishiba then apologized to the citizens, acknowledging that he did not want to cling to his position and that the authorities had failed to eradicate the Japanese people's distrust of government policy, despite the adoption of a political reform law.
Takahichi will be the fourth prime minister in the last five years. She is an experienced politician (first elected to parliament in 1993), having held key ministerial positions, including economic security, space and science policy, as well as internal affairs.
Takahichi is known for her hardline conservative stance; she advocates for revising Japan's pacifist constitution, strengthening the military, opposing same-sex marriage, and allowing women to ascend to the imperial throne. In economics, she focuses on tax cuts, subsidies for regions, and support for strategic sectors - energy and semiconductor manufacturing.
An extraordinary parliamentary session to approve the new head of the cabinet is expected to be convened in mid-October.
