MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Today, Japan's parliament voted in the country's first female prime minister, hard-line nationalist Sanae Takaichi. As NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Tokyo, her selection signals a sharp turn to the right for Japan's ruling party and government.
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ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: When the results were announced in parliament, Sanae Takaichi closed her eyes then stood and bowed to the assembled lawmakers.
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KUHN: Later, she told reporters about her resolve.
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PRIME MINISTER SANAE TAKAICHI: (Through interpreter) From now on, I will work boldly for the nation and its people to build a strong Japan that delivers results. I'm absolutely determined to never give up.
KUHN: Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, chose Takaichi as its new president earlier this month. Voters angry at LDP corruption and high prices dealt them two big election defeats this year and last, leaving the LDP in the minority in parliament. Komeito, the LDP's coalition partner of 26 years, left them. The LDP then allied with the opposition Japan Innovation Party, or JIP. Tokyo University political scientist Izuru Makihara says the new coalition may be unstable and unsustainable.
IZURU MAKIHARA: (Through interpreter) The current LDP-JIP coalition poses a significant risk of the government splitting apart.
KUHN: Takaichi, who's now 64, used to ride a motorcycle and play drums in a heavy metal band. Nearly a decade ago, she appeared on Japanese TV belting out a tune by the band, X Japan.
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TAKAICHI: (Singing in Japanese).
KUHN: Despite having broken through Japan's glass ceiling, Sanae Takaichi takes a conservative view of gender roles. Her conservatism is inspired partly by Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and by her mentor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Like Abe, she favors casting off post-World War II restraints on Japan's military. Abe is widely seen as a hard-line nationalist, but Izuru Makihara says Takaichi may prove even harder.
MAKIHARA: (Through interpreter) Japanese leaders have always been conservative, and among them, Miss Takaichi is extremely right-wing. She's tried to position herself even to the right of Mr. Abe.
KUHN: Makihara says Takaichi's views could cause rifts within the LDP, but they probably won't bother the Trump administration, says RAND Corporation political scientist Jeffrey Hornung.
JEFFREY HORNUNG: She's strategically aligned with the current U.S. administration in terms of her outlook on the region, where the threats are.
KUHN: Such as, for example, China. Hornung says the U.S. wants its allies to do and spend more for their own defense, and Takaichi agrees. The problem is, he says, Japan is strapped for money. Meanwhile, Washington, he adds, may not have grasped the seriousness of the political upheaval in Tokyo.
HORNUNG: She's not going to either have the bandwidth or the political wiggle room to really focus on grandiose, geopolitical defense spending and foreign policy initiatives. That's going to hamper U.S. efforts in the region.
KUHN: Then again, Hornung notes, the U.S. has its own domestic and foreign concerns that have distracted it from the Asia Pacific region.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Tokyo.
(SOUNDBITE OF DESTINY'S CHILD SONG, "GIRL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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