Japan’s prime minister has pulled in unusually strong public support for a recent era of Japanese leadership, and her latest political footing has solidified after her party’s performance in a snap election for the lower house, according to an Associated Press profile published Feb. 7.
The profile, written by Mari Yamaguchi, depicts Sanae Takaichi as a straight-talking figure with a tough-but-playful image, popular with younger voters who, it said, rally around her in ways past prime ministers have found difficult. It also links that popularity to the Liberal Democratic Party’s big gains in Sunday’s vote, saying the shift helped expand Takaichi’s power.
The Associated Press described Takaichi’s appeal as partly tied to her own personal style and public persona, including her enthusiasm for heavy metal music and motorcycles and her interest in playing drums, even with visiting dignitaries. In the profile, the prime minister is quoted describing a leadership success secret as “ work, work, work, work, work. ”
The AP also said Takaichi’s support has a generational edge, with younger people using her nickname “Sana” and following her choices, from fashion to stationery and steamed pork buns. It contrasted that image with what it called a long line of prime ministers dominated by older men, and it described the unusual character of her rise within a party that has led Japan for most of the last seven decades.
The profile included commentary from Izuru Makihara, a University of Tokyo politics expert, who said Takaichi stands out because she “speaks her mind and is seen as easygoing.” Makihara said her popularity is “highly regarded, especially by women and younger generations who strongly feel stuck and hopeless.”
It also placed her early premiership into a security context, describing how her first weeks as prime minister were marked by a hawkish comment on a possible Chinese military action against Taiwan. The profile said the self-governing island is claimed by Beijing and that the comment angered China by deviating from past strategic ambiguity.
Beyond her approach to foreign policy, the AP profile described how Takaichi navigated politics as a woman while also, it said, declining to define her leadership in feminist terms. It reported that she has supported the imperial family’s male-only succession and opposed same-sex marriage, and it said she also opposes amending the 19th-century law requiring married couples to have the same surname, under which most women are pressured into abandoning their own names.
The profile also described a political career shaped by family background and early resistance, saying Takaichi was raised by conservative parents and has recounted being taught prewar moral values, including by being raised on loyalty-focused political teachings. It said she worked as a television personality, an author and a critic after a brief internship in Denver in the late 1980s, and it described her political rise after joining Parliament and her style as straight-talking.
In discussing public perceptions, the AP profile included Takaichi’s recollection from 2023 of being insulted by some voters as “a little girl” during her early campaign. It also quoted her saying, “In those days, women who were not considered old enough were unwelcome,” and included her statement, “I am who I am,” adding that “The only way to prove myself is with the work I do.”
Yamaguchi’s profile further characterized her as someone who, she said, tries to emphasize work over socializing and has said she does not like drinking parties. It reported that after being elected as Liberal Democratic Party leader, Takaichi told party members to “work like a horse” and said she would forget her “work-life balance” and commit instead to “work, work, work, work and work,” noting that some people found the rhetoric uncomfortable in a country known for long hours and overwork.
The AP profile also described how Takaichi has tried to build connections after leadership bids and referenced reporting on her daily routine during her first three months in office, including a Kyodo News Agency analysis that said she was largely “holed up” in the official residence or her office, and a Mainichi newspaper report that said she had no dinner appointments with political or business leaders in her first month. It added personal details about her work habits and her mother’s influence, saying her mother slapped her in response to a complaint about being tired, and it included remarks from a local television executive, Nobumitsu Nagai, who described Takaichi as having inherited that strictness.
In the closing sections of the profile, the AP described another side of Takaichi, including a story in which she learned that she and Nagai attended the same elementary school in Nara and, it said, asked if he remembered the school song, then sang it together—an episode the profile presented as reflecting a “playful” streak beneath her image as a hawk and a right-leaning figure.