From the Daily Telegraph (U.K.):
Japanese politician hopes to become country’s ‘Iron Lady’ after announcing leadership bid
Sanae Takaichi, a known admirer of Lady Thatcher, has won the crucial backing of ex-prime minister Shinzo Abe
By
Julian Ryall
TOKYO
8 September 2021 • 1:26pm
A nationalist politician with ambitions to become Japan’s “Iron Lady” announced her candidacy for prime minister on Wednesday, after winning the backing of an influential former leader.
Sanae Takaichi, a deeply conservative former interior minister, vowed to boost Japan’s military capabilities and build back a pandemic-battered economy if elected to succeed Yoshihide Suga, who resigned last week amid nosediving ratings.
A known admirer of Baroness Thatcher, 60-year-old Ms Takaichi was considered a rank outsider until the weekend, when former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who remains an important figure in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, confirmed he would support her.
“With the responsibility to protect Japan and the determination to open the way for the future, I, Sanae Takaichi, announce my candidacy," she said in Tokyo.
Ms Takaichi would be the first female prime minister of a nation that was ranked 146 out of 156 countries for women’s political empowerment in the latest World Economic Forum annual gender gap report.
