Japan's economy needs foreign workers, not the nationalist approach pushed by its new leader

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers a speech at the House of Representatives plenary session in Tokyo on October 24, 2025. [AFP]

Sanae Takaichi has made history by becoming Japan’s first female prime minister. However, this was hardly a win for feminist or progressive politics.

Takaichi is a right-wing ultraconservative whose policy positions derive from traditionalist perspectives on the role of women, Japanese history and society more broadly.