How will Japan’s first female prime minister shape her country? | The Intelligence Podcast / 日本最初の女性総理、高市は国にどうなるか

 2025.10.27

En. abstract

The Economist / 2025.10.25
>How will Japan’s first female prime minister shape her country? | The Intelligence Podcast

Takaichi Saya, the first female prime minister, shows the great improvement of gender equality in the patriarchal society in Japan, while pushing Japan to the right wing.

1. How did Takaichi secure her position?
   It’s an unusual move by the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) to select a female leader. The main reason is the recent crisis of the LDP. Scandals caused the LDP to lose its parliamentary majority and destabilized the coalition. LDP had an urgent need to refresh the party's image. Therefore, with the slogan “Change LDP”, Takaichi won the election as a populist.

2. Background of Takaichi
   Takaichi comes from a modest background in Nara, setting her apart from the politically entrenched elite. As for the political spectrum, Takaichi follows the predecessor, Abe, focusing on national pride and the revival of Japan, “make Japan great again”. She models herself after Margaret Thatcher, whereas the key point would be whether her power can remain stable.

3. Would Takaichi be the next new right-wing like MEGA?
   Takaichi did show some similarity with the new right-wing, especially in the way of speech style, which means polarizing rhetoric. Conversely, instead of breaking the status quo as the new right-wing be, Takaichi, like an old school right-wing politician, preserves the status quo.

4. The governing plan:
   Takaichi mainly follows Abe’s way, including:

1. Strengthening Japan’s security force

2. New Abe economic: loose fiscal/monetary policy or nebulous growth strategy

3. Social conservatism. For example, she supports married couples to keep in same surname. The host claims that although Takaichi is the first female prime minister, she would probably not be a feminist PM. 

5. Foreign Diplomacy:

1. Increasing self-defence forces.

2. Keep the US-JP relations in a tricky way. Preserving more autonomy while keeping a close relation with the US.

3. Relations with neighboring countries: As a right-wing politician, Takaichi maintains a historical perspective that Japan’s wartime has passed. Therefore, it’s highly possible that China and Korea could be conflicted with Takaichi on this topic.

6. Could Takaichi be the key to stability in domestic polity?

Although shifting to the right indeed helps the LDP gain the voters who abandoned them previously, that move raises concern from the modern side of the LDP, causing internal pressure. To add on, the relation with other parties also makes the ruling coalition unstable. The long cooperation party, the Clean Government Party(CGP), broke up with the LDP as a result of the Takaichi inauguration. Thus, Takaichi brought a more right-wing and relatively small and new party (維新) to form the coalition. Finally, how the voters would assess Takaichi is still a question. Voters would care about living quality improvement, which depends on the economic policy performance.

日本語要約

    日本最初の女性総理、高市早苗は家父長制の日本社会の中でジェンダー平等の一歩を示す。でしたが、日本政治を右傾化させる側面もある。

１．高市はなぜ総理になるか

自民党にとって、女性総裁をえらぶことは普通ではない。大きい理由は自民党を揺るがした裏金問題。これにより国会の多数を失うため、自民党は新しいイメージを望む。そのような背景踏まえて、高市はポピュリストとして選ばれた。

２．高市の背景

他の政治家に比べて、高市は庶民出身であり。政策方針について、高市は安倍路線に沿って、国家の誇りや日本復興を強調する。

３．執政方針

そのため、高市は次の方針を示す：

　①　日本自衛隊を強化し

    ②　アベノミクス：大胆な金融緩和(例えば、量的金融緩和政策）と機動的な財政政策

    ③　社会保守主義：例えば、夫婦同姓を支持する。夫婦同姓を堅持する（けんじ）。「女性総理だからといってフェミニスト総理とは限らない」。。

４．高市は新右翼なの？

一方、ポーラライゼーションのようなスピーチ方は新右翼に似てるが、高市は現状に対して態度違いがある。新右翼は現状をぶっ壊す。逆に、高市は伝統保守主義のように現状を守るつもりだ。

５．外交方針

　①自衛力を増える

　②日米関係を微妙な形＊で維持する。米国との緊密な関係を維持しながら、より自主性を維持する。

　③隣国との関係：伝統右翼にとして、高市は保守的な史観（例えば、戦争は既に終わった）を持っている。そのため、中国や韓国が高市氏と対立する可能性が高い。

６．高市は政治安定のきっかけになるのか

    右傾化は、確か自民党が一部離れた有権者を取り戻すになるが、その動きは自民党の革新派から異存を引き起こし、内部からの圧力を生んでいる。さらに、いつも連合をつくた公明党は、高市の就任に伴い自民党と別れた。その圧力に対応して、高市は維新の党を連れてくる。維新の党はより小さい、さらに右翼の政党の上で、政治の安定はまた懸念がある。最後は、有権者は関心してのは経済見通し、それは経済政策に深いついている。政策効果は有権者の評価に大きい影響があると考える。