On Tuesday, Takaichi was elected by lawmakers in the lower house of parliament by a vote of 237-149 over her closest rival, Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the liberal opposition Constitutional Democratic Party.
PHOTO: Google
East Asia power house, Japan, last Tuesday, mounted the dais of history. It got its first female Prime Minister, the feisty workaholic, Sanae Takaichi. Madam Takaichi came to the biggest political office in Japan, the 4th largest economy in the world, with an impressive resume.
Good scholarship, strong political pedigree and an undeniable ethical value of hard work. She believes that work and more work have a reward which is prosperity and more prosperity. A wonk, a woman with eyes for excellence, nothing less.
Now, 64, she is projected as a tough cookie with zero room for frivolities. A typical east Asia value orientation that places premium on merit. In her youth, she rode motorcycles and played the drums in a heavy metal band. Adventurous, brilliant and one never afraid to dare. A strong admirer of the late British Prime Minister, Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. Her admiration of Lady Thatcher also earned her the moniker Iron Lady in Japan’s political circle.
Her focus would be to jumpstart the Japanese economy to a new level of prosperity, tighten immigration policy, ensure stronger defence strategies and sustain a robust relation with the United States.
Takaichi’s political pedigree as former minister of economic security, internal affairs and gender equality lends her to her new station. A protege of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, she is openly disposed to a stronger Japan in terms of defence, innovation and stronger currency, the Yen. These are pointers to what to expect under her watch.
And it was no coincidence that shortly after her emergence as PM, Japan’s Nikkei stock exchange closed at an all-time high for the second day in a row. A new sense of optimism floats in the air
Her elevation to PM had been coming. Earlier this month, she was elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the longest ruling party in modern Japan. The LDP had governed Japan almost uninterrupted since World War II, though ran unsuccessfully in 2021 and 2024.
Her victory speech as leader of the LDP was a mirror on her work ethic and unvarnished devotion to duty. Here she goes: “I myself will throw out the term ‘work-life balance,’ I will work and work and work and work and work.”
On Tuesday, Takaichi was elected by lawmakers in the lower house of parliament by a vote of 237-149 over her closest rival, Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the liberal opposition Constitutional Democratic Party.
She was also elected by upper house lawmakers in a second vote of 125-46 after falling one vote shy of a majority in the first round. This wide margin in the second voting happened after her party’s alliance with Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin, a far-right party based in Osaka.
As first female PM, she did not just shatter the ceiling, she literally removed the roof. But even that still did not excite the Japanese female folk. Japan is not a fan of Affirmative Action. Japan ranks 118th out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report. The report noted that women make up less than 16% of Japanese lawmakers in the lower house of parliament and 10% of government ministers. Will she buck the trend? Takaichi has already appointed two other women to her cabinet. She appointed Satsuki Katayam as Japan’s first female finance minister. But this fails to convince critics. The previous government had two female ministers, too.
But this article is not much about Takaichi and her background. It’s about how she became, how she emerged and the value system that threw her up the power rung. Japan has zero tolerance for corruption, indolence and ineptitude. The Japanese do not manage leadership; do not tolerate incompetence and cannot forbear a corrupt leader. This is the value that threw up Takaichi. Her predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, was forced to resign following allegations of corruption that rocked the leadership of the LDP. To compound matters, the electorate rejected the party at the polls. There has been a pattern of resignation of PMs on allegations of incompetence and corruption. It runs through Asia. Now, you know why Asian countries are heading up the global economy cusp. Premium is placed on corruption-free, ethical value-driven, innovative and visionary leadership. This is lacking in Africa, and the difference is as clear as night and day.
Takaichi became because Ishiba resigned. African leaders do not resign. Corrupt as they are, they write the rules and interpret the rules with of course the support of a gravely compromised judiciary while a distressed and partisan media watches in abject helplessness.
National and subnational leadership is not for felons. It is for men and women of proven integrity, persons shaped in grand visioning, versed in the dialectics of good governance; forged in the fire of 21st century diplomacy, and international business nuances. Persons fit and gritty enough to absorb the pressure of the office.
Asians have imbibed the culture of leadership integrity such that any leader loses his badge of honour and morality to lead once allegations of graft begin to fly around the leader. On the contrary, African leaders do not resign, do not step down. Rather, they muzzle the critics and the opposition. In some cases, they rewrite the rules, change the constitution just so they can hang on to power. Africa cannot produce a Takaichi because an African Ishiba could not have resigned.
The process that produced Takaichi was transparent. The world watched it. Nothing hidden. No duplicity; no parliamentary abracadabra. The votes of the parliamentarians counted. Nobody said ‘off your mic’. Every voice was heard. At the end, majority (the LDP) had their way while the minority had their say.
The election that brought the parliamentarians to their offices was credible, free and fair. No bullying, no voter suppression, no deviously contrived technical glitch to grift the polls. The people’s votes counted. This is a lesson for sub-Saharan Africa. As you read this, a 92-year-old Paul Biya has contested and ‘won’ the presidential election in Cameroon amid chaos and monumental electoral irregularities. At 92, jaded, tired and physically unfit, he wants to continue in office for another term of seven years. That will make it 50 years as President, an office he has occupied since 1982. No be juju be that?
Meantime, let’s toast to a new Iron Lady, to Takaichi, an admirer of the late British PM Magaret Thatcher, who 12 years after Thatcher’s death, became a PM of a progressive and tech-savvy east Asia nation, Japan.
