Prime Minister Takaichi's Priorities Need To Be Inflation And Communication

2025-11-07 03:13:59

(MENAFN- Asia Times) We in the media always get excited when something happens that we can describe as“new,” so naturally the arrival of Japan's first female prime minister has attracted a disproportionate amount of attention in the international media compared with what happened when some of her male predecessors ascended to that office.

Image and symbolism do matter in politics and international diplomacy, so some of that attention is justified. I certainly welcome the disproportionate attention given that, as I wrote in my 2020 book Japan's Far More Female Future, role models are important builders of confidence among new generations and, thanks to greater access to full university education since the 1990s, the coming generations of female professionals in Japan in all fields are far larger than ever before.

But we must be careful also to pay heed to the other factors that will determine whether Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will turn out to have a long-term impact.

In truth, there are four known aspects of Takaichi's ascent to the prime ministership that look important and relevant to her prospects, but also one further aspect that is partially unknown or at least unproven.

The known aspects:

Yes, she is female.
She is not from a family political dynasty – unlike most other senior Liberal Democratic Party figures.
She is socially and politically conservative.
Most importantly, she has ascended at a moment of weakness for her party such that her government lacks a majority in the Diet.

The unknown or unproven aspect concerns her skills as a communicator.

Thanks in part to her novelty as a female outsider, she has begun office with a high approval rating among the public, even though few really know her well because she has not been a frontline political communicator and her career as a television presenter ended three decades ago. If she is to remain popular she will have to show that she does have those communication skills, not just in the Diet but with the public.

Meloni comparison

A good point of comparison is Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who three years ago became the first Italian woman to occupy that role. As with Takaichi the media have found it hard to know what label to put on Meloni – especially as her political party, the Brothers of Italy, has origins that date back to the pre-war fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

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