LDP head Takaichi elected 1st female Japan prime minister with JIP support
TOKYO, Oct. 21 Kyodo - Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, was elected Japan's first female prime minister in parliament on Tuesday, backed by the party's new coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, amid political flux caused by growing multiparty dynamics.
While the alliance of the LDP and the JIP holds just short of a majority in the House of Representatives, Takaichi was endorsed by both houses of parliament as Shigeru Ishiba's successor, as opposition forces failed to field a joint candidate.
Later in the day, new Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara announced the list of Cabinet members, including Satsuki Katayama, a fiscally dovish LDP lawmaker, who became Japan's first female finance minister.
By appointing Katayama, a former senior Finance Ministry bureaucrat and former minister for regional revitalization, Takaichi is apparently aiming to project a sense of renewal for the LDP-led government through the inclusion of women in some key positions.
Female LDP lawmaker Kimi Onoda, a hawkish politician, became economic security minister, and will hold a concurrent post as minister responsible for policies on foreigners.
Takaichi, meanwhile, picked Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator with the United States, as trade minister to ensure continuity in bilateral talks, and offered major posts to her four rivals in the October LDP leadership election, signaling her intention to project party unity through the new Cabinet.
In the 465-member lower house, the 64-year-old conservative clinched victory by winning 237 ballots in the first round, in which a candidate must secure more than half to avoid a runoff, with several independents believed to have supported her.
Takaichi faced a runoff in the 248-member House of Councillors and was declared the winner with 125 ballots, surpassing the 46 for Yoshihiko Noda, head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, while 47 were deemed invalid and 28 left blank.
The LDP and the JIP, also known as Nippon Ishin, lack a majority in the upper house as well, which will force Takaichi, a security hawk and fiscal dove, to walk a tightrope as she needs cooperation from other opposition parties to pass bills.
Before the parliamentary vote on the first day of a 58-day extraordinary session through Dec. 17, Ishiba's Cabinet, launched in October 2024 but weakened by its failure to retain majorities in elections for both chambers, resigned en masse.
The vote came after Takaichi, a former internal affairs minister, won the Oct. 4 LDP leadership race, which was followed by the centrist Komeito party's departure, ending their 26-year coalition and prompting her party to seek a new ally.
The LDP and the JIP, headed by Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura, agreed Monday to form a coalition, pledging to unite behind Takaichi in the prime ministerial vote. The JIP does not occupy any Cabinet posts and will instead play an advisory role to the prime minister.
Takaichi gave the post of defense minister to Shinjiro Koizumi, while Toshimitsu Motegi was picked as foreign minister. The two were among her rivals in the LDP leadership race.
The two others were then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, who was tapped as internal affairs and communications minister, and Takayuki Kobayashi, already appointed as the LDP's policy chief.
Hitoshi Kikawada, a former senior vice minister at the Cabinet Office and a close aide to Takaichi, was named as minister in charge of child policy, the declining birthrate and related issues.
Jiro Akama, a former senior vice minister at the internal affairs ministry, became head of the National Public Safety Commission.
==Kyodo
