Sanae Takaichi, a former Minister of State for Economic Security, won the second round of the election to head the Liberal Democratic Party, (LDP, the ruling party in Japan), and thus will become the next Prime Minister of Japan when formally elected by the Parliament. She defeated Shinjirō Koizumi (the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi) in the head-on-head runoff election when none of the five candidates won over 50% in the first vote.
Takaichi is known as a conservative who was a protégé of Shinzo Abe. She is a member of the “ultra conservative” organization Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), as was Abe and the just-retired Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, as well as former Prime Ministers Tarō Asō and Yoshihide Suga. She is considered a China-Hawk and takes conservative positions on Japan’s right to restore its military independence, and opposes gender woke-ism. She regularly visits the Yasukuni Shrine, which is denounced by some for including the graves of war-criminals.
