Japan’s Parliament is expected to confirm Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister, following a deal between the LDP and the smaller right-leaning Ishin party to secure support for her leadership.

Tokyo

Sanae Takaichi is on track to become Japan's first female prime minister, following the resignation of the Ishiba government and a forthcoming vote in the Diet. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), lacking a majority in the lower house, secured a coalition with the Isshin party and support from independent lawmakers, allowing Takaichi to likely avoid a runoff vote.

The Isshin party, a right-leaning group, has not requested cabinet positions, and internal LDP figures such as Taro Aso and Shinichi Suzuki are expected to influence fiscal policy. The LDP remains divided after its long-time partner Komeito left the coalition. Takaichi's immediate challenge will be preparing for an upcoming visit from the U.S. president.

Takaichi on track to become Japan’s first female Prime Minister

Sanae Takahichi is going to become Japan's first female prime minister. What's going to happen this morning is the Ishiba government will resign en masse. This is a pro forma. And then an extraordinary diet session will be held this afternoon customarily. It starts around 1 p.m. You go through a little bit of the motions and then they start voting shortly thereafter. As you mentioned, this is a minority government. LDP only has 196 seats in the very critical lower house. But they inked a deal with a small party called Isshin last night of the last minute. They have 35 votes. So that means 231, too short, shy of an outright majority. But there are reports now that they have won over a couple of independents. And what that means that is that Sanae Takahichi might avoid a runoff vote, which expedites the process. It's not like without them, she's not going to be prime minister because the lower house prevails in the runoff, even if she doesn't win an outright majority. So I think for that, it's going to be one for the books. And I think people will be focusing on her cabinet lineup by the end of the night when she is goes to the Imperial Palace, Martin, and the emperor says you are now the prime minister. I think you'll see a cabinet lineup that might include some new faces. Martin. OK. And Kerry, you know, I remember earlier this morning you were telling us that there was no apparent or obvious quid pro quo, as there usually is in Japanese politics, meaning Isshin is not asking for any cabinet seats, at least not yet. I think the take is they want to see whether there's any sort of stability before they jump in. The other thing is, I mean, Isshin is, we know, a right leaning party, and there's a sense that could they could constrain Takahichi's sort of spending tendencies. But it's not just Isshin within her own party, I think. And tell me if you agree or not, we should be watching names like Taro Aso and also the LDP secretary general, Shinichi Suzuki. Both of them are fiscal hawks. They could check her as well. Yeah, I mean, I don't think this changes the fact that the LDP is in disarray. And this is a big party. And it was clear that they couldn't hold it together. And Taro Aso, who is the kingmaker in the LDP now, I mean, he did not see it coming that Komeito, their longtime partner of 26 years, would bolt before this vote later on in Parliament. So I think that question still prevails. And that's the reason why they had to scramble together, was basically like watching speed dating for the last week and finally get the rubber stamp from Isshin, which is really a small, small party centered in the western city of Osaka. And this is really their first time that they're going to have a prominent seat in national politics and probably partly the reason that they're not looking for a cabinet post. But I think the fact that they did finally ink this deal, obviously, the markets are sighing a bit of a relief. But as you pointed out, it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to immediately see this kind of big blanket spending. But I think the immediate test for Sanae Takahichi will be the Trump visit, as the U.S. president said in the clip you just heard there. He's coming next week. That's not a whole lot of time to prepare, right, Sherry? Yeah, and you know, President Trump's Asia tour is going to be testing a lot of leaders in the region as well.

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Japan's parliament has elected the country's first female leader. Sanae Takaichi, 64, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is seen as a hardline conservative who supports traditional gender roles and hawkish foreign policy.

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