Sanae Takaichi
Sanae Takaichi became Prime Minister of Japan in October 2025, the first woman to hold the office in a political culture that had produced none in the seventy years of Liberal Democratic Party dominance. Born in Nara prefecture in 1961 to a car-company employee and a police officer, she came from outside the political families that supply much of the Japanese elite. She studied at Kobe University, worked as a television presenter, and spent a period as a congressional fellow in Washington. She was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 as an independent, joined the LDP in 1996, and built a career on the party's right, closely associated with Shinzo Abe. She held the internal affairs and communications portfolio for several terms, and served as minister for economic security — a post created to screen foreign investment and protect supply chains in semiconductors and critical materials, reflecting Japan's assessment of its exposure to China. She was also LDP policy chief. Her politics are nationalist and economically expansionary. She is a defender of Abenomics and of loose monetary policy, has visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours convicted war criminals among Japan's war dead and reliably angers Beijing and Seoul, and favours revising the pacifist Article 9 of the constitution and raising defence spending. She has opposed allowing married couples separate surnames and same-sex marriage, positions that sit awkwardly with the symbolism of her own appointment. She won the LDP leadership in October 2025 after Shigeru Ishiba resigned, then had to build a new coalition when the party's long-standing partner Komeito walked out.
- Lived: 1961 CE – ?
- Nationality: Japanese
- Roles: Prime Minister of Japan (2025-present)
