Japan's New Prime Minister Takaichi And the Illusion of Progress: What Really Changes for Women in Japan?
- Francesco Palmieri
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Introduction
On October 21, 2025, Sanae Takaichi was elected the first woman to be the Prime Minister of Japan. In many countries, the news was greeted as a historic change: that a woman could lead a nation still strongly tied to patriarchal traditions was interpreted as a step forward. However, beyond the headlines, the reality is more complex.
Takaichi, in fact, represents a living contradiction. That she attained such an important political role does not challenge those structures; rather, she has joined and now fiercely supports them. This article examines how Takaichi’s career may at first appear to break out of the patriarchal glass ceiling, yet she has placed herself at the head of a party that remains deeply tied to the male authority figure. A woman who openly supports this system provides validation for it. Considering Japan's political situation within the East Asian context, it is essential to examine how Takaichi's rise aligns with the global trend of radical-right-wing leaders. The goal is to understand whether her government truly represents a break with the past or merely reinforces the status quo of a misogynistic political class.
The social challenge for women in Japanese politics
Analysing the first ministerial appointments, these immediately showed the first limits of the change under Takaichi. Her government has only two women out of 19 possible ministers, practically the same number as the previous executive, and her promise to raise female participation “to Nordic levels” already seems to be the Minister's first stumble (Hernández & Daviz, 2025). Gender studies experts have noted that the composition of Japan’s new leadership has been “discouraging,” with little to provide in the “advancement of women” (Komiya, 2025).
Takaichi defended her choices with the claim of “competence before gender,” but this very fact highlights the structural problem that there are very few women in senior roles in Japanese politics. Currently, women make up only 13% of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members of parliament, and the target of reaching 30% by 2033 remains very modest by the standards of many other developed countries. According to the 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, which measures how far countries have advanced to ensure gender equality, Japan ranks 118th out of 148 countries (World Economic Forum, 2025). When compared to other developed countries, such as Finland, which has a government composed of more than 60% women, the country of the Rising Sun remains at the bottom of the G7.
Gender inequality in Japan, as elsewhere, has very deep historical roots. Influenced by Confucian thought, the concept of a “good wife and wise mother” (良妻賢母 - ryōsai kenbo) continues to shape expectations for women in Japanese society. This has long come with the expectation of female subjugation to male authority. Today, the rigid Japanese work culture, with extremely long hours and a strong hierarchy, makes it almost impossible to reconcile career and motherhood, and this pushes the most ambitious women to the margins of the social fabric.
Takaichi herself opposed the reform that would have allowed married women to keep their surnames, arguing that it would have “weakened the family unit.” According to feminist theorist Yayo Okano, Takaichi embodies the "patriarchal model of the LDP: men at the centre of production, women relegated to domestic and care work” (Komiya, 2025). Her leadership style does not contradict these cultural expectations: on the contrary, it is a clear manifestation of this style.
From “Womenomics” to the co-optation of feminism
Over the past two decades, Japan has promoted the policy of “Womenomics," introduced under Shinzo Abe's government to increase female participation in the labour market, but as Chelsea Schieder (2019) points out, Womenomics reduces gender equality to a purely economic instrument: ‘What started out as a movement for equality has been transformed into a project to train global female leaders to serve the economy’ (Schieder, 2019).
Takaichi also follows this belief. While talking about “equal opportunities,” she rejects substantive measures that could bring about change. These could include gender quotas, welfare expansion, or better protection for working mothers. Her government only modernises the image of the LDP from the outside in an apparent way, almost as if they were embellishing a shop window, but without ever actually changing the inside of the shop, thus not touching the superstructures that exclude women from power.
A conservative alliance reinforcing old structures
To consolidate a majority, Takaichi formed an alliance with the Japan Innovation Party (Ishin), an economically liberal but socially conservative force. This collaboration reinforced those nationalist tones and supported keeping the imperial succession reserved for men only.
Social policy expert Yoko Otsuka noted that "their austerity measures risk hitting the most vulnerable groups, such as single mothers and low-income workers” (Komiya, 2025). Takaichi's agenda thus aligned with Abe's legacy of manoeuvres on security and fiscal austerity before social policies. All reforms that demonstrate a “non-change,” (i.e., a condition in which political reforms that seem to lead towards a different future, once analysed in concrete terms) show that there is no change at all.
Japan's position is even clearer when compared to the G7 and other East Asian countries. Japan is last among the G7 for female representation, but this kind of difficulty is observed throughout the region. Female representation in South Korea stands at 19% MPs, and while Taiwan has a 42% gender quota, there has been little impact at the local levels.
In the 2024 East Asia Gender Equality Forum, held in Taipei, experts reiterated that formal representation is insufficient without bigger cultural changes: ‘Legal equality without cultural will remains an empty promise’ (Foundation for Women’s Rights Promotion and Development, 2024).
[...] This comparison only reinforces that Takaichi's role does not solve the structural barriers; on the contrary, she seems to want to raise them, through a policy of appearances and meager reforms that break down preconceptions and stereotypes even at the cultural level.
A global phenomenon: Female leaders in conservative systems
Takaichi's rise is part of an international trend: the emergence of female leaders within nationalist and radical-right-wing movements. Looking to Europe, figures such as Giorgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen, and Alice Weidel have transformed the political landscape using what many analysts refer to as strategic femininity. This phenomenon has been explained that ‘women on the radical right do not deny their gender identity, rather they exploit it to make authoritarian messages more acceptable’ (Chrisafis et. al., 2019).
This strategy further softens public perception of politics, highlighting how Takaichi employed a similar approach to her predecessors. If observed closely, her role symbolised the advancement of women, but at the same time, reinforced the same system that continues to limit them. Many studies observe this trend: ‘contemporary conservative leaders gain power not to overcome patriarchy, but to operate within it’ (Matsunaga and Rehmert, 2025). Her leadership thus represented continuity with the system that, until recently, relegated them to marginal roles, preventing them as much as possible from attaining roles of power.
Now that they have realised they can no longer continue, they have decided to put women who share their ideas, thus realising one of the biggest mass distraction operations international politics has ever seen. This fragility of change is most noticeable to the intentional observers; in fact, for many of these, Takaichi is more of a symbol than an agent of profound transformation, as Tiina Airaksinen of the University of Helsinki stated, “She cannot change everything by herself, but she can trigger change” (Komiya, 2025). However, there is a real risk that its leadership will mainly produce an appearance of progress while keeping inequalities intact.
Conclusion
Sanae Takaichi's government epitomises Japan's gender paradox: a woman winning a powerful political position while strengthening the structures that hinder the progress for other women. It almost seems as if what should represent the change now may prevent the others from doing so.
Her leadership shows how conservative parties can use female figures to embellish and modernise their image while keeping their preexisting structures of power unchanged. In the end, it takes very little to renew their image and depict themselves as bringing progress, as enlightened politicians opposed to those power dynamics that have kept women out of power for centuries.
Looking at it more in the international arena and the global trend of radical right-wing leaders, Takaichi's rise highlights both the opportunities and limitations of representation without structural reforms. It cannot yet be known whether her tenure will break new ground or remain a symbolic exception; this will depend on whether the cultural, institutional, and political roots that continue to hinder social change are addressed.
This article represents the views of contributors to STEAR's online digital publication, and not those of STEAR, which takes no institutional positions.
References
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