Takaichi became prime minister last October through winning a party leadership election, then won her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a huge majority in general elections for the Lower House of the Diet (parliament) in February this year. This was attributed largely to Takaichi’s novelty as the country’s first female prime minister and one who does not come from a political dynasty, but also to her robust stance in the face of a row with Japan’s biggest security threat, China, over remarks she had made in the Diet about Taiwan.
That landslide victory did not make her impregnable – the LDP lacks a majority in the weaker Upper House of the Diet, which it cannot change until elections to that house in 2028 – but it opened up a big opportunity to bring about change.