Born and raised in Yamatokōriyama, Nara, Takaichi graduated from Kobe University and worked as an author, legislative aide, and broadcaster before beginning her political career. Elected as an independent to the House of Representatives in the 1993, she joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1996. A protégé of Abe, Takaichi held various positions during Abe's premiership, most notably as Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications. She was a candidate in the 2021 LDP leadership election, but was eliminated before the runoff, placing third.[4] From 2022 to 2024, during Fumio Kishida's premiership, she served as Minister of State for Economic Security. Takaichi made her second run for the party leadership in the 2024 leadership election, where she came in first in the first round but narrowly lost in a runoff to her predecessor Shigeru Ishiba. She eventually ran again in the 2025 leadership election for the third time and placed first in both rounds of voting, defeating Shinjirō Koizumi, and becoming the party's first female president.[5] After securing a coalition agreement with the Japan Innovation Party, Takaichi was elected prime minister by the National Diet on 21 October, becoming the country's first female prime minister.[6][7]
Takaichi was born on 7 March 1961 in Yamatokōriyama, Nara Prefecture, where she was raised. She was from a dual-income, middle class household. Her father, Daikyū Takaichi (1934–2013),[10] worked for an automotive firm affiliated with Toyota and her mother, Kazuko Takaichi (1932–2018),[11] served in the Nara Prefectural Police[ja].[12][13] Takaichi graduated from Nara Prefectural Unebi High School[ja]. Despite qualifying to matriculate at Keio and Waseda universities in Tokyo,[14] she did not attend as her parents refused to cover tuition fees if she left home or chose a private university because she was a woman.[15][14] Instead, Takaichi commuted six hours from her family home to attend Kobe University, paying her way with part-time work.[16] During her university years she joined a band, playing the drums.[16] She graduated from Kobe with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1984, then enrolled in the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management.[17][18]
With sponsorship from the Matsushita Institute, she moved to the United States in 1987 to work as a congressional fellow for Democratic congresswoman Pat Schroeder.[13][19][20] Upon her return to Japan in 1989, she worked as a legislative analyst with knowledge of American politics, and wrote books based on her experience. She then became a presenter for TV Asahi in March 1989, co-hosting the station's "Kodawari TV Pre-Stage" programme with Renhō. In November 1990, Takaichi was employed as a presenter for Fuji Television, later serving as anchor of the morning information program named "Asa Da! Nandou Gaku".[21][22]
Political career
Political beginnings
Takaichi first attempted to run for the Nara Prefecture Electoral District of the House of Councillors during the 1992 House of Councillors elections. She eventually ran as an independent candidate and competed with Mitsuo Hattori for the post, after Mitsuo's father, Yasuji Hattori, decided not to run for the post. Of the 313 eligible voters, Takaichi lost to Hattori as Hattori received a total of 162 votes while Takaichi received a total of 137 votes and 1 invalid vote. Hattori was later proclaimed as the winner of the election.[19]
Early political career (1993–2006)
Takaichi in 1998
Takaichi was first elected to the Japanese parliament's lower house, the House of Representatives, in the 1993 Japanese general election as an independent.[23] The following year she joined the minor "Liberals" party led by Koji Kakizawa, which soon merged into the New Frontier Party.[24] In 1996, Takaichi ran as a sanctioned candidate from the New Frontier Party and was re-elected to the House of Representatives; however, the New Frontier Party lost nationally. On 5 November, she responded to recruitment from the Secretary-General of the LDPKoichi Kato and then joined the LDP. Her act of switching parties, two months after winning the election with anti-LDP votes, resulted in heavy criticism from New Frontier Party members.[25]
In the 2003 Japanese general election, she was defeated in the Nara 1st district by Democratic Party lawmaker Sumio Mabuchi. She moved to the nearby city of Ikoma and won a seat representing the Nara 2nd district in the 2005 Japanese general election.[27] In 2004, while she was out of the Diet, she took an economics faculty position at Kinki University.[23] Takaichi headed an LDP in-party group that opposed legislation that would allow spouses to have separate surnames after marriage (夫婦別姓, fūfu bessei), arguing that it would undermine Japan's traditional family system. Besides, as communications chief she "stirred controversy when she suggested TV broadcasters could have their license revoked if they air programs the government considers politically biased, a remark widely slammed as tantamount to the repression of free speech".[28]
Takaichi was selected as Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications to replace Yoshitaka Shindō on 3 September 2014. After she was named as a cabinet minister, a photograph was published of her together with Kazunari Yamada, the leader of the National Socialist Japanese Workers' Party – a small neo-Nazi party in Japan. She denied any link with Yamada and said she would not have accepted the picture had she known Yamada's background.[32] She was also shown promoting a controversial book praising Adolf Hitler's electoral talents in 1994.[33]
Takaichi was among the three members of the cabinet to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in 2014,[34] became the first sitting cabinet member to attend the shrine's autumn festival in 2016,[35] and was one of four cabinet ministers who visited Yasukuni on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in August 2020.[36] In the December 2014 general election, she won an overwhelming 96,000-vote majority in her district, defeating the runner-up by 58,000 votes.[37]
In February 2016, Takaichi commented that the government could suspend the operations of broadcasters that aired politically biased content.[38] The U.S. State Department later described this as "[giving] rise to concerns about increasing government pressure against critical and independent media."[39] An electoral redistricting in 2017, which Takaichi oversaw as internal affairs minister, eliminated one of Nara Prefecture's districts and resulted in Takaichi again potentially facing off with her former rival Sumio Mabuchi.[27] Takaichi was replaced by Seiko Noda on 3 August 2017, but returned to the Internal Affairs and Communications post on 11 September 2019, replacing Masatoshi Ishida. Among other initiatives, she put pressure on NHK to cut its licence fee and reform its governance,[40] and oversaw the distribution of cash handouts during the COVID-19 pandemic.[41]
In August 2021, Takaichi expressed her willingness to challenge then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for the presidency of the LDP in the scheduled election on 29 September.[42] On 3 September, Suga announced that he would not seek re-election; Takaichi officially announced her bid on 8 September with the support of former Prime Minister Abe.[43] Takaichi was eliminated in the first round of voting, and Fumio Kishida was elected.[44]
Kishida government (2022–2024)
Takaichi served as Minister of State for Economic Security in Kishida's government from August 2022.[45] She was in charge of preparing a bill to implement a security clearance system for classified information relating to economic security. The lack of such a system had prevented Japan from joining the Five Eyes.[46] The bill was made law by the Diet in May 2024.[47]
Hiroyuki Konishi, a Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan-affiliated House of Councillors member, said on 2 March 2023 that he obtained a government document indicating that the former Abe government may have intended to interfere with the freedom of broadcasting by putting pressure on broadcasters that were critical of the LDP.[48] Takaichi was Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications at the time the document was said to have been created. When pressed during a committee session the following day, Takaichi said that the document was "fabricated" and vowed to resign from parliament if the document were proven genuine.[48] Several days later, on 7 March 2023, the Internal Affairs ministry confirmed that the document was created by ministerial officials, and opposition Diet members called on Takaichi to resign.[49] Following the announcement, Takaichi held to her position that the remarks attributed to her within the document were fabricated, adding that Konishi should bear the burden of proving the document's authenticity.[49]
In August 2023, Takaichi expressed concern that plans to sell the government's stake in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone could make Japan's telecommunications infrastructure vulnerable to China.[50]
In August 2024, former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that he would not seek re-election on his post as the President of the LDP. On 9 September, Takaichi announced her second bid to become LDP leader. Among the nine contenders, Takaichi emerged as a frontrunner alongside Shigeru Ishiba and Shinjiro Koizumi. Ultimately, she came first in the first round of voting with 181 votes, but was defeated by Ishiba in the runoff election with 215 votes to Takaichi's 194 votes.[51]
Following Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's resignation, Takaichi announced her candidacy for LDP president in the resulting leadership election on 18 September 2025.[52] In early polling, Takaichi and agricultural minister Shinjirō Koizumi were identified as the frontrunners.[53] As campaigning continued, both Takaichi and Koizumi were nearly tied in opinion polls.[54] Takaichi softened her political message during the election campaign, declaring herself a "moderate conservative". She declined to comment on her previous stated intention to visit Yasukuni Shrine as prime minister.[55]
The election was held on 4 October; Takaichi received 183 votes (31.07%) during the first round, the most of any candidate.[5] Koizumi came in second with 164 votes (27.84%). As no candidate achieved a majority in the first round, a run-off election was held between Takaichi and Koizumi.[5] Takaichi won the runoff by a 54.25% to 45.75% margin, becoming the first woman to hold the post of LDP president.[56] In her first acts as party president, Takaichi appointed Tarō Asō as vice president and Shun'ichi Suzuki as secretary-general of the LDP.[57]
LDP presidency
Upon her election as party president, it was already speculated that a Takaichi government would accommodate an interest rate increase by the Bank of Japan early in her possible tenure as prime minister.[58] After her election, the Nikkei 225 share gauge surged past the 47,000 level for the first time and the yen slid in terms of its value.[58] The Nikkei rose over 4% to hit a record high and the index closed 4.75% higher to end the trading day,[59] while the value of the yen lost 1.8% against the dollar.[60]
Komeito party leader Tetsuo Saito announced on 10 October that his party would break with the LDP and leave the governing coalition, citing disagreements with Takaichi's leadership and the LDP's handling of the slush fund scandal.[61][62] This development signified the collapse of the 26-year-old LDP–Komeito coalition;[62] as a result, the parliamentary election to choose Japan's next prime minister was pushed back from 15 to 20 October.[61][63] On 15 October, Takaichi asked Hirofumi Yoshimura, the leader of the Japan Innovation Party, to enter into a coalition with the LDP.[64] On 17 October, the Diet officially voted to set 21 October as the session confirmation date.[65] On 19 October, it was announced that the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party agreed to form a coalition, lasting through October 2027. The leaders of both parties signed a coalition agreement on 20 October, clearing Takaichi's path to the premiership.[66][67] At the 21 October meeting of the Diet, both houses nominated Takaichi to be the country's first female prime minister.[68] Takaichi avoided a runoff in the lower house, garnering 237 votes against Constitutional Democratic Party leader Yoshihiko Noda's 149.[69] She was officially appointed prime minister by Emperor Naruhito in a ceremony at the Imperial Palace later that day.[70][71]
Takaichi in the National Diet following her nomination as prime minister
After becoming prime minister on 21 October, Takaichi formed her cabinet. While she had said that she wanted her cabinet to include as many women as those in the Nordic countries,[72][73] only two women would actually join the cabinet: Satsuki Katayama as Japan's first female finance minister,[74] and Kimi Onoda as economic security minister.[72] In her inaugural press conference, Takaichi said that she "prioritised equality of opportunity" above all else, and had selected ministers based on their qualifications, not gender.[75][76]
The cabinet was viewed as favoring party unity, with Takaichi's rivals receiving key positions: Toshimitsu Motegi as foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi as internal affairs minister and Shinjiro Koizumi as defense minister. Ishiba's confidant Ryosei Akazawa was promoted to minister of economy, trade and industry, showing a degree of continuity.[77][78] Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, however, is ideologically aligned with Takaichi, a break from recent prime ministers.[79]
Prime Minister Takaichi speaks in front of reporters on her first press conference as Prime Minister at the Kantei
On her first press conference as Prime Minister on 21 October 2025, Takaichi outlined her key priorities on her premiership such as tackling rising inflation and also announced her proposal of the suspension of the provisional gasoline tax rate. Takaichi also announced her other plans such as the proposal for creating a back-up capital region, overhauling the country's social security system, revising the constitution, and creating a majority government to bring stability while listening to opposition parties regarding national policies and raising the national tax-free income threshold. Takaichi also stated that crisis management is part of her core agendas in her premiership and laid out her plans to increase the collaboration of the public and private sectors in investing in economic, energy, and food security.[80] According to local reports, Takaichi is currently planning a ¥13.9 trillion ($92.19 billion) economic stimulus package as part of her first economic initiative policies aimed for "responsible proactive fiscal policy", which has three main pillars; namely measures to counter inflation, investment in growth industries, and national security. Other proposals also include the expansion of local government grants for small and medium businesses and additional investments in technology such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors.[81]
Takaichi has been described as holding staunch conservative and Japanese nationalist views,[82][83][84] citing former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as a role model[13][85] and deeply influential on her personal political beliefs.[b] Like Thatcher, she is called the "Iron Lady of the East".[c] Takaichi is a member of Nippon Kaigi, an organisation that argues for a reinterpretation of Japanese history amongst ultranationalist lines.[93]Taro Kono, another LDP minister and member of the House of Representatives, has said that Takaichi is on the far right of the political spectrum within the LDP.[94] Takaichi has been described as far-right by Deutsche Welle and the South China Morning Post,[95][96] while Time magazine described her as an ultraconservative.[97]
Immigration
Like her fellow candidates in the 2025 LDP leadership election, Takaichi has been described as taking a "hard-line stance" on immigration. The New York Times stated that during her leadership campaign "she seized on a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment".[98] Specifically she has been described as wanting "tighter restrictions on immigration"[99] and employed "anti-immigration rhetoric" during her campaign.[100]
During the campaign she called for a "crackdown" on illegal migration and emphasized that "foreigners must strictly obey" Japanese law stating that those who overstay their visa or abscond from justice should be treated as harshly as Japanese citizens. She proposed that policies be reconsidered from the ground up, with an aim to establish an "orderly coexistence" between Japanese citizens and immigrants based on "mutual consideration" in communities. In her campaign manifesto she also proposed establishing an agency to tackle issues such as visa overstays, overtourism, and land purchases by foreign nationals, particularly near defense facilities and strategic assets. On refugees she explicitly stated: "For those who come [to Japan] with financial motives and claim that they are refugees, I'll have you go home."[101][102]
Takaichi supports adoption of a "Comprehensive Economic Security Act" that would establish laws and organizations to prevent foreign students and engineers who come to Japan from nations like China from taking Japanese technology back to their home countries for military purposes.[103]
Economics
Takaichi is known for favouring proactive government spending. She supports heavy government investment in critical strategic sectors in what she refers to as "crisis management investment". These include: artificial intelligence, semiconductors, nuclear fusion, biotechnology, and defence.[104] She supports maintaining Shinzo Abe's policy of Abenomics.[105] During the 2025 LDP leadership election, she said she would consider paying for an economic stimulus plan by issuing bonds to service the national debt.[106]
During her 2021 run for LDP leader, she put forward a three-pronged "Plan to Strengthen the Japanese Economy", also known as "New Abenomics" or "Sanaenomics". The first prong is expansionary monetary policy, the second prong is "flexible fiscal spending in response to crises," and the third prong is "bold investment in crisis management and growth".[107] The plan places particular emphasis on "bold crisis management and growth investment", which will involve large-scale fiscal spending and the development of legal systems and new economic bonds.[108]
Takaichi has advocated for tax increases on corporations. She has considered raising taxes on cash deposits rather than retained earnings, and in September 2021 she estimated that "a 1% tax on corporate cash deposits would increase tax revenue by 2 trillion yen. Even if companies with capital of 100 million yen or less are excluded, tax revenue would increase by 1 trillion yen."[107]
Takaichi has advocated stricter regulations on the media, including penalties for outlets that she believes unfairly criticize the government, and legal consequences for defacing or damaging Japan's national flag.[93] In 2014, she hosted office visits for far-right extremists.[93] Also in 2014, a photo surfaced of Takaichi pictured for an advertisement in a Tokyo magazine endorsing a 1994 book titled Hitler's Election Strategy.[111] Takaichi serves as the vice chairperson of the parliamentary conference of the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership (Shinto Seiji Renmei),[20] which advocates for restoration of Shinto religious rites and moral education.[112]
Foreign policy
Takaichi, like all other candidates in the 2025 LDP leadership election, supports revising article nine of the Japanese constitution to include mention of the Japan Self-Defence Forces.[113] In 2021, she advocated revising the constitution to reposition the Self-Defense Forces as a "National Army", and increasing defense spending to promote the procurement of advanced equipment and research and development. She stated that in the event of war, "it is important to neutralize enemy bases first."[114] She has proposed the adoption of anti-espionage legislation, something also supported by the opposition parties such as the Democratic Party for the People.[102] She is also in favour of the creation of a national intelligence agency.[115]
Takaichi has been critical of Chinese economic practices such as intellectual property theft, and has voiced support for reducing economic dependence on China. She has argued for deployment of US medium-range missiles to Japan,[116] and the removal of marine buoys placed by China in waters both countries claim as part of the Senkaku Islands dispute.[117] In April 2025, she visited Taiwan and met with President Lai Ching-te. She has repeated Shinzo Abe's statement that a "Taiwan emergency is a Japan emergency."[118] During the 2021 Liberal Democratic Party leadership election, in which she placed third, her stance on China was the most hawkish of any candidate.[116]
Takaichi has made multiple visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which is seen as controversial by China and South Korea, primarily for its enshrinement of Japanese war criminals.[98] She made visits in April and August 2024, both times signing as minister of state.[124][125][13] She also visited in August 2025, on the 80th anniversary of the surrender of Japan.[126] In the 2021 LDP leadership race, she said she would continue to visit the shrine if elected Prime Minister,[116] but in the 2025 race avoided commenting on the question.[127]
In 2022, Takaichi made remarks about the Yasukuni Shrine issue that were controversial in South Korea.[128] She said, "When we act ambiguously, such as stopping our visits to Yasukuni Shrine midway, the other side climbs up", using the derogatory Japanese word tsukeagaru, which means "to take advantage of someone's politeness or kindness and act impudently". She went on to say that continuing to visit the shrine would eventually make "neighbouring countries...look foolish and stop complaining".[128]
Takaichi has said that war crimes committed by Japan in World War II have been exaggerated.[13] She takes a negative view of the Kono and the Murayama statements, which issued apologies for Japanese war crimes, including comfort women. In an appearance on a television program on 18 August 2002, Takaichi was asked, "Do you think Japan's war after the Manchurian Incident was a war of self-defence?" to which she replied, "I think it was a war for security."[129]
Takaichi married a fellow member of the House of Representatives, Taku Yamamoto, in 2004.[131] They have no children together, but Takaichi adopted Yamamoto's three children from a previous marriage. They divorced in July 2017, with Takaichi citing differing political views and aspirations as the reason.[132][133] They remarried in December 2021. She has four grandchildren through her stepchildren.[134][135] After undergoing surgery for a gynecological disease, Takaichi found it difficult to conceive and give birth, and gave up on having children. In 2007, she said, "I want society to be welcoming to infertile women."[136]
During her first marriage, Takaichi assumed her husband's family name legally, but continued to use her maiden name in public life. Upon remarriage, Taku Yamamoto took the name Takaichi instead, fulfilling the legal requirement that married couples have the same family name.[2] Yamamoto suffered from a cerebral infarction in 2025, leaving the right side of his body paralysed. Takaichi serves as his caregiver.[137] Despite being members of opposing political parties, Takaichi is known to be friends with CDP President Yoshihiko Noda, who also serves as the opposition leader since 2024. Noda was Takaichi's senior during their time at the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management.[138][139]
A view of Takaichi's Toyota Supra A70 currently displayed in a museum in Nara
Takaichi is an avid fan of JRAhorse racing, a heavy metal and Japanese rock listener, especially from artists Demon Kakka, B'z, and X Japan, and is a supporter of sporting teams such as Gamba Osaka and Hanshin Tigers.[140] Takaichi was known to play the drums and the piano during her youth.[141] She also holds a title of Sommelier d'honneur and has an interest in motorcycles, having owned a Kawasaki Z400.[17] Takaichi is also known to be practicing judo, karate, a scuba diver and a car enthusiast, formerly owning a 1991 Toyota Supra A70 2.5GT Twin-Turbo Limited during her early years in parliament and used the car to drive to her workplace for over 20 years. Takaichi's Supra A70 served as a replacement to her Toyota Supra Celica XX. The car is currently on display in a local Toyota dealership museum in Nara.[19][142] Takaichi is also known to be a heavy smoker and a known manga lover, being a particular fan of Bari Bari Densetsu and Kaji Ryusuke no Gi.[143][144]
↑ "Fumio Kishida Is Japan's New Prime Minister. Here's How He Beat a Much More Popular Rival". Time. 29 September 2021. Archived from the original on 29 September 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2025. Yoshikazu Kato, a director of a Tokyo-based research and consulting firm Trans-Pacific Group (TPG), believes Kishida's team was able to secure more votes with help from supporters of ultraconservative candidate Sanae Takaichi—who was vying to become Japan's first female prime minister.
↑ "高市大休氏が死去 高市早苗自民党政調会長の父". Nikkei Shimbun (in Japanese). 6 May 2013. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2025.
1 2 "高市早苗氏の意外な過去にフェミニストも震えた 総理の座を狙う過程で何があったのか おんなの話はありがたい"[Even feminists tremble at Sanae Takaichi's surprising past: what happened on the road to prime minister? It's nice to hear a woman's side of the story]. PRESIDENT Online (in Japanese). 16 September 2021. Archived from the original on 30 April 2025. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
↑ Although the term "Youth Affairs" is used in its official English title, the original Japanese title shōshika (少子化) is more aptly translated as "diminishing birth rate issue".
↑ "高市早苗・自民党総裁、第104代首相に選出 憲政史上初の女性宰相"[LDP President Sanae Takaichi is 104th Prime Minister and the First Woman to Hold the Role since the Introduction of Constitutional Government]. BBC News (in Japanese). 21 October 2025. Archived from the original on 22 October 2025. Retrieved 22 October 2025.
↑ "「夫の介護が辛い」高市早苗が総裁選前に漏らした介護の苦労"["It's difficult caring for my husband": Sanae Takaichi reveals struggle before LDP leadership election]. Gendai Business (in Japanese). 4 October 2025. Archived from the original on 5 October 2025. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
