Japan’s 1st Female Prime Minister Is a Pick-Me Girlboss

Sanae Takaichi likes Margaret Thatcher, but not same-sex marriage.

By Danielle Han  |  October 22, 2025 | 10:50am
Photo: Getty Images Politics
Japan’s 1st Female Prime Minister Is a Pick-Me Girlboss

Sanae Takaichi is the woman of cool-girl trope dreams. She rides motorcycles, has a black belt in karate, and was part of a heavy metal rock band, where she often broke her drumsticks during concerts. Way less cool is Takaichi’s hardline views on traditional gender roles and her opposition to same-sex marriage, and even less cool is that she’s now Japan’s first female prime minister. One small step for women, one giant fallback for womenkind.

Earlier in October, Takaichi was elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, the country’s largest political party that, for seven decades, governed post-war Japan as a center-right party. Formed in 1955, it’s long been defined by its economic hawkishness and pro-American policies, and is credited for helping the country reach its economic superpower status in the latter half of the 20th century. But recently, the party’s been struggling with election losses, scandals, and a leadership vacuum after its former leader (and Takaichi’s fellow war crimes revisionist) Shinzo Abe was assassinated in 2022. So to regain power for her party, Takaichi partnered in a deal with a further-right party called Ishin, thus positioning herself for the PM position and pushing the LDP deeper into conservatism.

After securing the October 4 election, sociologist and feminist author Chizuko Ueno wrote on Twitter: “The prospect of a first female prime minister doesn’t make me happy,” saying her appointment “doesn’t mean Japanese politics [will become] kinder to women.” 

Japan—the fourth largest economy in the world—has long been bogged down by chauvinist values, and in June, it was ranked 118th out of 148 countries for gender equality. Alas, Takaichi could uphold the patriarchy by supporting the same policies the men before her did. She wants male-only succession for the Japanese throne, she opposes amending a 19th-century law making Japan the only country to require a name change after marriage (in 95% of cases, women take their husbands’ names), and in a campaign debate in December, she said same-sex partnerships were “fine,” but marriage was not.

On the campaign trail, Takaichi also promised to improve the issue of representation in parliament, saying she wanted a government that looked more like Iceland, Finland, or Norway. In Iceland, six of its 11 ministers are women, and in Finland, 11 of 19 are women; in Japan, as of 2024, only 10% of government ministers are women. Yet, after her election on Tuesday, Takaichi appointed just two women to her 18-member cabinet. 

In another tweet, Ueno wrote that Takaichi “sees herself as the Japanese version of Thatcher.” And yes, the PM has repeatedly referred to Thatcher as a role model, crediting her ability to balance hardline politics with, er, “womanly warmth.” (As a child, Takaichi’s mom told her to be a “crimson rose” that can “retain feminine grace while possessing the thorns to confront wrongdoing.” Which, I guess, is one interpretation of that.) As such, she’s been dubbed Japan’s very own Iron Lady. Good for her!

As PM, one of Takaichi’s first steps will be to meet with Trump on Tuesday, and the two have wasted no time kissing each other’s asses. On Truth Social, he called her a “highly respected person of great wisdom and strength” (though he forgot to include her name), to which she tweeted she was “very pleased to receive such warm words of congratulations.” Throughout her campaign, Takaichi had parroted Trump’s ideology and promised a “Japan First,” anti-immigrant, and populist ideology. Her election—much like what countries like Argentina, Italy, and Thailand are experiencing—marks another shift to the populist right.

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