She becomes Japan’s fifth premier in as many years and will lead a minority government with a packed agenda, including a scheduled visit by US President Donald Trump next week.
Parliament voted Takaichi into office after she unexpectedly won a majority in the first round. She is set to formally take office following a meeting with the emperor.
Takaichi, a former heavy metal drummer, became head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on October 4.
The LDP, which has governed almost continuously for decades, has been losing support, and six days later, the Komeito party left the coalition due to Takaichi’s conservative views and an LDP slush fund scandal.
This prompted Takaichi to form a last-minute alliance with the right-leaning Japan Innovation Party (JIP), which supports lowering the consumption tax on food to zero, abolishing corporate and organizational donations, and reducing the number of MPs.
Takaichi pledged to “make Japan’s economy stronger and reshape the country for future generations.”
“She’s a strong-minded person, regardless of being a woman,” said 76-year-old pensioner Toru Takahashi in Takaichi’s hometown of Nara. “She’s not like Trump, but she’s clear about what’s right and wrong.”
Nordic
Takaichi has promised a cabinet with “Nordic” levels of women, up from two under outgoing premier Shigeru Ishiba.
These could include the right-wing Satsuki Katayama in charge of finances and the half-American Kimi Onoda as economic security minister, local media said.
Japan ranked 118 out of 148 in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report. Around 15 percent of lower house MPs are women and corporate boardrooms are overwhelmingly male.
Takaichi, 64, has said she hopes to raise awareness about women’s health struggles and has spoken candidly about her own experience with menopause.
But she opposes revising a 19th-century law requiring married couples to share the same surname, and wants the imperial family to stick to male-only succession.
In Nara, company worker Keiko Yoshida, 39, told AFP she hopes Takaichi will “make Japan a more liveable place for women”.
“I’d be happy if we saw more policies from a woman’s perspective: support for childcare, and help for women returning to work after having children,” agreed student Nina Terao, 18.
Abenomics
Details of a trade deal between Washington and Tokyo remain unresolved, and Trump also wants Japan to stop Russian energy imports and boost defence spending.
“I’d like her to be a Prime Minister who can clearly say ‘No’ when needed,” Satoshi Sakamoto, 73, another Nara pensioner, told AFP.
Beyond Trump, Takaichi’s many challenges include reversing the decline of Japan’s population and injecting some vim in the flatlining economy.
Being in a minority in both houses of parliament, the new coalition will need support from other parties to push through legislation.
Takaichi has in the past backed aggressive monetary easing and expanded government spending, echoing her mentor, former premier Shinzo Abe.
Despite walking back on these “Abenomics” calls in the LDP leadership contest, her victory has boosted Japanese stocks to record highs.
She previously said that “Japan is completely looked down on by China”, and that Tokyo must “address the security threat” posed by Beijing.
But she has since toned down her rhetoric on China, and stayed away last week from a festival at the Yasukuni shrine — she has been a regular visitor before — honouring Japan’s war dead.
Takaichi will also be under pressure to restore the fortunes of the LDP after a string of poor election results that cost Ishiba his job.
Smaller parties gaining support include the populist Sanseito, which calls immigration a “silent invasion”.
“Prices have gone up, and it’s tough,” Nara pensioner Satoe Tominaga, 77, told AFP, saying she was “50-50” about Takaichi.
“Honestly, I mostly shop at 100-yen ($0.66) stores now.”
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