Japan Elects 1st Female PM: She's A Conservative That Likes Heavy Metal

[Shen Li]

A Thatcherite East Asian woman who like metal. Congrats Sanae Takaichi. You are my hero.

As a young woman in the late 1970s, Sanae Takaichi commuted six hours a day by bus and train from her parents' home in western Japan to attend university. She was a fan of heavy metal music and Kawasaki motorcycles who yearned to move out. But her mother insisted at first that she stay home, forbidding her from living in a boardinghouse before marriage.

"I dreamed of having my own castle," Ms. Takaichi wrote in a 1992 memoir.

On Tuesday, Ms. Takaichi won election as Japan's prime minister, the first woman to do so in the nation's history. It was the pinnacle of an improbable rise in politics and a milestone in a country where women have long struggled for influence.

Ms. Takaichi, 64, who grew up near the ancient Japanese capital of Nara, defies easy labels. She once spoke bluntly about the challenges of working in politics as a woman in Japan, yet she is now the leader of the traditionalist, male-dominated Liberal Democratic Party. She has expressed concern about Japan's reliance on the United States, but has also said she hopes to work closely with President Trump. She is an amateur drummer who idolizes bands like Iron Maiden and Deep Purple, yet she also wears blue suits to pay homage to her other hero, the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Ms. Takaichi, a protégée of Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, who was assassinated in 2022, is expected to move Japan farther to the right, responding to a recent populist wave that bears some similarities to Mr. Trump's MAGA movement. She has embraced hawkish policies on China; pushed the message that "Japan is back"; played down Japan's atrocities during World War II; and promised to more strictly regulate immigration and tourism.

"She wants to make Japan strong and prosperous for the people of Japan and for the world," said Yoshiko Sakurai, a prominent journalist and activist who has supported Ms. Takaichi. "She is open to the outside world. But she also understands that we have to be really good Japanese. We have to know our own culture, traditions, philosophy and history."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/world/asia/sanae-takaichi-japan-prime-minister.html

[Shen Li]

Fuck you white libtards. Japan is not your woke safe space.

[Brent]

A Thatcherite East Asian woman who like metal. Congrats Sanae Takaichi. You are my hero.

I am one quarter Japanese, but I don't know much about Japan. I am more interested in the three quarters of me that is German.

[Herman]

A Thatcherite East Asian woman who like metal. Congrats Sanae Takaichi. You are my hero.

We should send them the Conman and we get her.

[DKG]

A Thatcherite East Asian woman who like metal. Congrats Sanae Takaichi. You are my hero.

I wish her all the success in the world tackling Japan's litany of problems. BUT, the prime minister of Japan is not the same as the prime minister of Canada. In Canada it as an all powerful position much more powerful than the POTUS in the U.S.

The new pm of Japan cannot rule as a dictator like Trudeau and Carney. She must seek consensus or her party will dispatch her in favour of a more compliant leader. That is the reality of Japanese politics. In some ways it is better than Canada, but it means a pm is a puppet.

[Prof Emeritus at Fawk U]

Best of luck to her.  I hope her policies get under the skin of all libtards everywhere.

[Shen Li]

I wish her all the success in the world tackling Japan's litany of problems. BUT, the prime minister of Japan is not the same as the prime minister of Canada. In Canada it as an all powerful position much more powerful than the POTUS in the U.S.

The new pm of Japan cannot rule as a dictator like Trudeau and Carney. She must seek consensus or her party will dispatch her in favour of a more compliant leader. That is the reality of Japanese politics. In some ways it is better than Canada, but it means a pm is a puppet.

I know how hard it is for any Japanese leader to make any real change. Still I hope she can do that.

[Lokmar]

I gotta kid that speaks, reads, and writes Jap! FACT!

[DKG]

I gotta kid that speaks, reads, and writes Jap! FACT!

Did he take an East studies program in university? How did he learn Japanese?

[formosan]

I gotta kid that speaks, reads, and writes Jap! FACT!

I can speak intermediate level Japanese Lokmar.....as well as Mandarin, Taiwanese and some Dutch.

[Lokmar]

Did he take an East studies program in university? How did he learn Japanese?

Actually, no. I keep telling him he needs to go get a credit for it. He mostly learned from internet sources and he met a few people that spoke it that helped him along. I cant remember what N level he is but he's way beyond the first 2 levels available at the local university.

[Lokmar]

I can speak intermediate level Japanese Lokmar.....as well as Mandarin, Taiwanese and some Dutch.

Awesome! I admire people who are multi lingual!

[DKG]

Actually, no. I keep telling him he needs to go get a credit for it. He mostly learned from internet sources and he met a few people that spoke it that helped him along. I cant remember what N level he is but he's way beyond the first 2 levels available at the local university.

I can't speak Korean.