Sanae Takaichi, a hard-line conservative, was elected as Japan’s first female prime minister on Tuesday Oct. 20th.

An assistant of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Takaichi is likely to return to “Abe-Style Stimulus” as an attempt to jump-start a sluggish economy, according to Reuters (Katsumura, Kelly, Oct. 21st). “Abe-Style Stimulus” refers to policies that increase government spending and taxes breaks to cushion the rising cost of living impact.

In an interview with reporters, Tadashi Mori, a professor of politics at Aichi Gakuin University said, “The two parties do not command a majority in either chamber and to ensure a stable government and gain control of key parliamentary committees, they will need to secure more than half the seats.” (Katsumura, Kelly, Oct. 21st).

Takaichi has also named two women to her cabinet, far less than promised. During her campaign Takaichi said she would have enough women in her cabinet to match those in Nordic nations such as Denmark’s 36% to the highest percentage being Finland’s 61%. Takaichi’s cabinet is only 16%, including herself.

President Trump may also meet with Takaichi sometime next week. “I’ll be in Malaysia, I’ll be in Japan, I’ll be in a couple of others, we’ll be sort of doing a little bit of a tour,” said Trump at a press conference according to Reuters (Anagnostopoulos, Oct 21st).

After Takaichi won the LDP’s leadership race earlier this month Trump described the win as “tremendous news for the incredible people of Japan.” on Truth Social according to BBC News (Khalil, Oct. 21st).