Takaichi, 64, grew up in Nara prefecture in central Japan.
She is an unusual figure in high-level Japanese politics because she does not come from a prominent political family.
Her mother was a police officer, and her father worked for a car company. She was first elected to parliament in 1993.
She attended Kobe University, where she played drums and drove a motorcycle.
After graduation, she spent time in the United States, interning with former Representative Patricia Schroeder, (Democrat-Colorado).
How did she rise in politics?
In the 2000s, Takaichi became an ally of Shinzo Abe, who went on to become a long-serving prime minister. He was assassinated in 2022 after he had stepped down.
Like Abe, she supported amending the pacifist constitution, a contentious position in a country wary of military aggression.
Takaichi is one of a small number of women to reach the highest levels of government in Japan.
She has served stints as a government minister, overseeing economic security, internal affairs and communications, and she ran to lead the Liberal Democratic Party in 2021 and 2024.
On Saturday, she prevailed in an election by the LDP after two rounds of voting by lawmakers and rank-and-file members.
She beat out four men to become the party’s president.
What policies is she known for?
Takaichi has been a prominent critic of China’s efforts to expand military and economic influence, and she has called for Japan to do more to strengthen its defence capabilities.
She has also been a staunch supporter of a return to “Abenomics” — a platform of low interest rates coupled with broad government spending.
During the campaign, she seized on a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment.
She said that Japan should create a “command centre” to oversee issues related to foreigners.
And she blamed tourists for kicking the cherished deer in Nara, where she is from, and doing pull-ups on gates outside sacred shrines.
Like Abe and other conservatives, Takaichi has argued that Japanese atrocities during World War II have been overstated.
She regularly visits Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial in Tokyo honouring Japan’s war dead — including class A war criminals from World War II — that is a flashpoint for historical sensitivities in China and South Korea.
After her victory on Saturday, Takaichi called the shrine a “facility to console the war dead and a shrine of peace”.
She did not address whether she would continue to visit the shrine, saying only that she would “make an appropriate decision how to console them and how to pray for peace”.
What are her views on women’s rights?
Takaichi has been accused of embracing policies that feminists say diminish women’s rights.
For example, she supported a law requiring married couples to share a surname.
But she has also sought to expand healthcare for women, and she has promised to appoint a large share of women to her Cabinet.
There are only two women in the current 20-person Cabinet, and women make up about one-fifth of parliament.
Takaichi has often cited Thatcher, the former British prime minister, as a role model. She once called a memoir by Thatcher, “my treasure”.
What challenges might she face?
Takaichi faces an immediate hurdle. She must win the support of enough MPs in Japan’s parliament, the Diet, to be elected prime minister of the coalition government.
Because of its recent electoral losses, the LDP is in the unusual position of being a minority in both houses of parliament.
That means that Takaichi will have to win support from other groups.
Takaichi is expected to eventually prevail and lead a country undergoing rapid change.
She would be expected to address issues like rising food prices, stagnant wages, China’s military build-up in the South China Sea and the pressures created by Japan’s ageing population.
She will also need to build a relationship with United States President Donald Trump, who is set to visit Asia this month. Japan and the US are still working out the details of a trade agreement.
Speaking to her colleagues on Saturday, Takaichi promised to work on behalf of the Japanese public.
“I’ll give up work-life balance,” she said. “I’ll be humble.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Javier C. Hernández and Hisako Ueno
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
