Sanae Takaichi, 64, will officially become after meeting with the Emperor later on Tuesday.
The lower house of parliament appointed the after she unexpectedly won a majority in a first round of voting.
She is expected to welcome US President Donald Trump from October 27, in her first major challenge.
Japan’s LDP losing support
Takaichi is Japan’s fifth leader in as many years, as the ruling LDP — which has governed almost non-stop for decades — continues to bleed support.
After taking the reins of LDP on October 6, she faced her first challenge as the Komeito party quit their coalition, citing discomfort over Takaichi’s conservative views and the .
It pushed Takaichi into forming an alliance with the right-leaning Japan Innovation Party (JIP), in a deal that was signed on Monday.
Key to JIP policies are to lower the consumption tax rate on food to zero, abolish corporate and organizational donations to political parties and to reduce the overall number of MPs.
Women will be key to newly formed goverment
Promising to form a government with “Nordic” numbers of women, Takaichi had pledged on Monday that she would “make Japan’s economy stronger, and reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations.”
Having spoken openly about her own struggles with menopause, the former heavy metal drummer has vowed to raise awareness about women’s health struggles.
The east Asain country has a heavily patriarchal society and was ranked 118 out of 148 in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, with around only 15% of lower house MPs women.
However, Takaichi openly opposes revising a 19th-century law requiring married couples to share the same surname, and wishes for the imperial family to stick to male-only succession.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher
The post Sanae Takaichi named Japan’s first female prime minister appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
