Zürcher Nachrichten - Japan's Sanae Takaichi: Iron Lady 2.0 hopes for election boost

Instead, ahead of snap elections on Sunday, it is her hardline stance on China, workaholic reputation and deft touch, especially with the young, that have shaped her fledgling premiership.

Riding high in the polls, the 64-year-old looks set for a thumping win in the elections, which would give her a stronger mandate to push through her ambitious policy agenda.

After winning the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership, Takaichi -- a hawk on defence and economic security -- became Japan's fifth leader in as many years.

She inherited a struggling LDP deserted en masse by voters because of inflation, a recent slush fund scandal and the advent of the populist, anti-immigration Sanseito party.

True to her reputation as an ultraconservative, Takaichi as prime minister has sounded tough on immigration and has not shied away from incurring the wrath of China.

She suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if China ever launched an attack on Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as part of its territory.

Her remark sparked a diplomatic row with China, which announced in January a broad ban on the export to Japan of "dual-use" goods with potential military applications.

Beijing has also reportedly been choking off exports of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.

This was not the first time Takaichi has been on the wrong side of China.

As a former economic security minister, she was a vocal critic of Beijing and its military build-up in the Asia-Pacific.

She has been supportive of Taiwan, saying during a visit in April that it was "crucial" to strengthen security cooperation between Taipei and Tokyo.

She has also been a regular visitor to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours convicted war criminals along with 2.5 million war dead and is seen by Asian nations as a symbol of Japan's militarist past.

- Heavy metal and gifts for Trump -

Once a drummer in a college heavy metal band, she put her musical skills to full use last month when she played two K-pop songs during a session with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

Official footage of a smiling Takaichi drumming energetically with Lee led to widespread praise online, with some so surprised they wondered if the clip had been AI-generated.

Echoing the playbook of her mentor, the assassinated former prime minister Shinzo Abe, she wasted no time after taking office in courting US President Donald Trump, showering him with praise -- and gifts ranging from a golf bag and putter to American beef.

While declaring the late British prime minister Thatcher as her political idol, she has so far shown little sign of leveraging her gender to attract support.

In fact, Takaichi's views on gender place her on the right of an already conservative LDP, and she opposes revising a 19th-century law requiring married couples to share the same surname, a rule that overwhelmingly results in women taking their husband's name.

Takaichi has been married twice to the same man -- a former member of parliament. During her first marriage, she took his name. In the second, he took hers.

And despite her campaign promise to improve the gender balance in her administration to "Nordic" levels, she ultimately appointed just two other women to her 19-strong cabinet.

Japan ranked 118 out of 148 in the World Economic Forum's 2025 Gender Gap Report chiefly because of the underrepresentation of women in government.

She supports aggressive monetary easing and big fiscal spending, echoing her political mentor's "Abenomics" policies, which, if implemented again, could rattle markets.

By plunging into the whirlwind of events in the last three months, Takaichi has lived up to a vow she made in October after being elected LDP president: "I shall work, work, work, work and work."

In November, she revealed she only sleeps for between two and four hours every night, after raising eyebrows by arranging a 3:00 am staff meeting to prepare for a parliamentary session.

D.Graf--NZN