Japan’s ruling party elects Sanae Takaichi as new leader, likely to become first female PM

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00:00Senai Takeichi is set to become Japan's new and first female prime minister.

00:06She won this Saturday's leadership race in the ruling party to replace outgoing Shigeru

00:10Ishiwa.

00:11Takeichi is a hardline conservative security hawk, and as prime minister, she will take

00:15helm of the world's fourth largest economy at a time of unusual political instability.

00:21For more, let's speak to Tokyo-based journalist James Sims.

00:25Hello to you, James.

00:27How did Takeichi win today's party leadership race?

00:31Right.

00:33This was actually her third time in running for the presidency of the LDP, which usually

00:38carries the premiership.

00:40So after her second loss, she actually worked to build up her support, especially among the

00:44local LDP chapters.

00:46And that was actually the critical difference in her winning and losing.

00:50So the vote, the overall vote tally was very close between Takeichi and Farm Minister Shinjido

00:56Koizumi.

00:57She had 149 to his 145.

01:01But in the final tally, she got much more of the local regional votes from the party members.

01:07Yeah.

01:08After winning, she held it as a new era.

01:11Any idea what Japan is in store for?

01:15Well, I think one obvious thing is that she's the first female leader of the ruling Liberal

01:23Democratic Party, and most likely she will be the first female prime minister of Japan.

01:28Japan.

01:29And so Japan has been very far behind just in terms of sort of gender equality and also

01:34women in the workforce and leadership positions in both politics and business.

01:38And so in terms of the new era, Nara, her main focus is on trying to rebuild support for

01:45the party.

01:47The Japanese are very upset with the very high inflation as well as the stagnant wages.

01:52And so that is one of the main reasons that the party has lost the last two elections and

01:57that eventually forced this new leadership election.

02:01The Japanese public is ready for a female leader?

02:07I think so.

02:08And she's, you know, fairly conservative.

02:10And so the party supporters are, you know, fairly conservative and they voted for her.

02:16And so one of the reasons that the party has lost the last two major national elections

02:21is that they've lost votes to other conservative parties.

02:26And so if you look at the support among those conservative parties, they their support

02:30for her was much stronger.

02:32So, I mean, that potentially will help the ruling party in terms of gaining voters who

02:39have left.

02:40But she only has about two years because the term for the lower house is only for another

02:45three years.

02:46But usually after you're only down to about one year, they start talking about the election.

02:50So she has about maybe two years to try to turn things around, to try to tamp inflation,

02:56as well as to get wages up to overcome the fairly high inflation.

03:01Yeah.

03:02And I think you just alluded to James, but what are the biggest challenges facing her moving

03:07forward?

03:10So obviously it's just the economy.

03:12As in many countries in the industrialized West, the economy is one of the major factors.

03:17There is a bit on immigration and also foreign visitors, but I think that's been sort of a

03:23distraction.

03:24One of the very far right sort of nationalist parties has used the bogeyman of foreigners

03:30as a way to try to attract party voters.

03:33But I think that the main focus she will have to focus on is on the economy to get inflation

03:38down and to get wages up.

03:40Obviously, she's also facing a very difficult Northeast Asian security situation, and she

03:46will also have to deal with a mercurial president in the United States in terms of trade policy

03:52and also investment policy.

03:53So hopefully in terms of the cabinet she will put together, she will bring in some people

03:58who are well-versed in those issues on national security and foreign policy to try to make up

04:04for, I think she's lacking those sort of, I think, strong points.

04:08She's been more focused on domestic policy.

04:11She was the head of the party policy group, and she was also the minister of internal affairs.

04:16So hopefully she will bring in people that will be able to deal with some of these more

04:19vexing foreign policy issues.

04:22James, thank you very much.

04:23James Sims reporting from Tokyo.

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