Japan's 1st female PM

Sanae Takaichi, the 64-year-old chief of Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has become Japan's first-ever woman prime minister and the country's 104th leader since 1885. The hard-line conservative won with 237 votes in Japan's lower house, a slight majority. She did face a runoff in the upper house, but came out the winner. A successor of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus-focused economic policies, Takaichi made history after the LDP broke with former coalition partner Komeito Party to join forces with the right-wing Japan Innovation Party. The two parties together do not have a majority in the Japanese parliament. For now, Takaichi has time to demonstrate domestically and internationally that she is a leader committed to efforts to "build a strong Japan economy and protect its interests." Stressing that Seoul-Tokyo ties are "now greater than ever," Takaichi said, "I want to move our ties forward in a stable, future-oriented way, building on the foundation laid by past administrations." But despite expectations for a more cooperative stance, Takaichi has indiWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times