Japan’s likely next prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is expected to name former minister Satsuki Katayama as the country’s first woman to head the finance ministry, broadcaster FNN reported, marking a powerful symbol of breaking the glass ceiling as Takaichi herself is poised to become Japan’s first-ever female prime minister later on Tuesday.
Takaichi, a hardline conservative and an acolyte of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is now almost certain to become prime minister at a parliamentary vote on Tuesday after her Liberal Democratic Party on Monday agreed to a coalition deal with the right-wing Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin.
Historic Appointments
Takaichi’s victory will make her the first female prime minister in a country where the top echelons of politics and business are still overwhelmingly male-dominated. Her election will also likely mark a harder tack to the right in a country increasingly worried about rising prices, lacklustre growth and immigration.
Takaichi plans to appoint Katayama, a former finance ministry official-turned-lawmaker, as finance minister, broadcaster FNN reported. Katayama would become Japan’s first female finance minister. She chairs the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s research commission on the finance and banking systems.
She has a strong background in economic and finance fields, having served as minister in charge of Local Economic Revitalisation under Abe.
Positive Market Responses
Lawmakers will vote later in parliament to elect the new prime minister. With a combined 231 seats in parliament’s dominant lower house, the coalition falls two votes short of a majority. But that tally is almost certainly enough for Takaichi to win the vote.
Stock markets also reacted positively and rose further on Tuesday, boosted by hopes that Takaichi will increase government spending to revive the slow economy. Investors also remained positive, and the Nikkei share average touched another record high, showing confidence in her expected economic policies.
(With inputs from Reuters)
