Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader on October 4, 2025, putting her on the path to becoming the country’s first female Prime Minister.
- Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader on October 4, 2025, putting her on the path to becoming the country’s first female Prime Minister, just like her hero, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
- She is set to become Japan’s first female Prime Minister on the 15th of this month when Japan’s lower house of parliament, known as the Diet, convenes. The leadership election began last month following the resignation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
- Japan’s former Economic Security Minister Takaichi defeated Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in the second round of the election, receiving 185 votes compared to Koizumi’s 156. None of the five candidates in the party leadership race secured a majority in the initial round of voting.
About Sanae Takaichi
- Takaichi will replace the incumbent Shigeru Ishiba, who assumed office last year. Ishiba announced his resignation last month amid growing pressure within the LDP, which has lost its majority in both houses of the Diet.
- A disciple of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, her politics combine ultranationalism and social conservatism with an assertive fiscal stance.
- Like Abe, who accelerated Japan’s military reconstruction, Takaichi also seeks to strengthen the country’s military capabilities to counter China, which she considers its main rival.
- Along with Sanae Takaichi, former LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, and Takayuki Kobayashi were also contenders.
- Takaichi’s victory represents a triumph for the right wing within the LDP and a departure from the liberal politics of Ishiba. For the embattled party, it is seen as a much-needed turning point.
Billionaire Andrej Babis’s ANO party wins Czech parliamentary elections
- Populist billionaire Andrej Babis’s ANO party won about 35.5 percent of the vote in the Czech parliamentary elections, with around 94 percent of votes counted.
- The current ruling SPOLU coalition came second with about 22.5 percent of the vote, while the STAN movement finished third with about 11 percent.
- The victory marks a political comeback for Babis, who served as Prime Minister from 2017 to 2021.
- In the 2021 elections, the SPOLU coalition narrowly defeated ANO by less than one percent and formed a government under the leadership of Petr Fiala. Around 8 million voters exercised their franchise in the two-day election.
- The contest for seats in the 200-member lower house involved 26 parties and groups, four more than in the previous 2021 elections.
- Billionaire Andrej Babis wants to reduce aid to Ukraine, and observers fear that ANO’s victory in the Chamber of Deputies elections could spell trouble for Ukraine.
- The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia and historically as Bohemia, is a landlocked country located in Central Europe. It borders Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast.
- The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,871 square kilometers (30,452 square miles) of hilly terrain with a mostly temperate continental and oceanic climate. Its capital and largest city is Prague; other major cities and urban areas include Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň, and Liberec.
