TOKYO: Japan's ruling party picked hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi as its head, putting her on course to become the country's first female prime minister in a move set to jolt investors and neighbours. The Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for almost all of the postwar era, elected Takaichi, 64, to regain trust from a public angered by rising prices and drawn to opposition groups promising stimulus and clampdowns on migrants.
A vote in parliament to choose a replacement for outgoing Shigeru Ishiba is expected on October 15. Takaichi is favoured as the ruling coalition has the largest number of seats. Takaichi, the only woman among the five LDP candidates, prevailed in a runoff against the more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, who was bidding to become Japan's youngest modern leader. A former economic security and internal affairs minister with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world's fourth- largest economy, Takaichi takes over a party in crisis.
The LDP and its coalition partner lost their majorities in both houses under Ishiba over the past year, triggering his resignation. Takaichi, who says her hero is Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, offers a starker vision for change than Koizumi and is potentially more disruptive. An advocate of late premier Shinzo Abe's "Abenomics" strategy to boost the economy with aggressive spending and easy monetary policy, she has previously criticised the Bank of Japan's interest rate increases.
At a press conference after her victory, Takaichi laid out various plans to cut taxes and increase subsidies but said she understood "the importance of fiscal prudence". The BOJ's monetary policy must account for the fragility of the economy and wage growth, she said. Takaichi said she planned to honour an investment deal with US President Donald Trump that lowered his punishing tariffs in return for Japanese taxpayer-backed investment, having previously mooted the possibility of redoing it.