Japan May Get Its First Female PM Or Youngest In Modern Era In Upcoming Poll

Japan may soon have its first woman Prime Minister or its youngest leader in the modern era after the voting for the head of nation’s ruling party on Saturday.

According to a report by Reuters, the front-runners in the potentially historic Liberal Democratic Party election are conservative nationalist Sanae Takaichi, 64, and her more moderate rival Shinjiro Koizumi, 44.

They are among the five candidates aiming to replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Among the woman candidates, Takaichi has vowed to bring in aggressive government spending and raised the possibility of redoing an investment deal with US President Donald Trump that lowered his punishing tariffs.

“Koizumi and Takaichi offer two quite different approaches to that renewal,” said Tina

Burrett, a political science professor at Tokyo’s Sophia University. Koizumi is seen as someone who could forge consensus with other parties while Takaichi would shake up “a world of rather grey politicians”, she said.

If elected, Koizumi will be only few month older than Hirobumi when he became Japan’s first Prime Minister in 1885.

Reuters quoted Asahi newspaper report as stating that Koizumi leads among the 295 LDP lawmakers who will vote for party leader, followed by Hayashi and Takaichi. However, Takaichi is ahead of both of them among rank-and-file party members.

Japan will get its second Prime Minister in just over a year when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party holds a leadership election on October 4. This is because Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was forced to resign after a historic upper house election loss in July.