Meet Japan's New 'Iron Lady'

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Transcript

00:00Sinaia Takechi has just been confirmed as Japan's first female prime minister.

00:04But more important than her gender might be her taste for headbanging in music and in politics.

00:09Takechi is the most right-leaning leadership choice Japan has made in recent years. She's

00:14a former newscaster, a motorbike rider, and is well known as an amateur drummer and heavy metal

00:19enthusiast. She calls Margaret Thatcher her idol, and like the Iron Lady, Takechi is a patriot who

00:25says she wants to build a stronger country. Progressives probably won't like her, and she's

00:30not been able to fulfill a promise to stack her cabinet with women on a level similar to Nordic

00:35countries. But she has appointed the country's first ever female finance minister. To become prime

00:40minister, she's pulled off the audacious move of reconstructing her party's coalition, replacing

00:46the Liberal Democratic Party's partner of the last 26 years with an upstart party. Failure to complete

00:52this coalition would have meant she wouldn't become prime minister. That shows her willingness to take

00:56risks. Call it heavy metal politics. Markets are also excited about Takechi. Some hope she'll be

01:03another Shinzo Abe and inject more fiscal stimulus into Japan's economy. The Nikkei 225 stock average

01:09has soared since her victory to hit record after new record. Takechi has certainly been an advocate for

01:15free spending policies in the past. But does she have Abe's savvy political instincts? Because the Liberal

01:21Democratic Party isn't in a position these days to force through radical plans. And the challenges

01:27are intimidating. Inflation, a shaky alliance with Washington, and a restless electorate. But if she

01:32can harness her heavy metal politics, fast, loud, and unpredictable, she might yet prove to become Japan's

01:40Iron Maiden.