Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader, Sanae Takaichi, has become the country’s first female prime minister, partnering with a small populist party to try to pick up the necessary votes for a first-round victory in parliament. But the hard-right Takaichi has an uncertain mandate that will likely mean new elections before she can get very far with her ambitious agenda.

Takaichi, 64, takes over from Shigeru Ishiba, who was forced out by the party after a dismal showing in July elections for the upper house of parliament where the long-ruling LDP failed to gain a majority in either chamber. Her path to victory has not been a smooth one. After winning the party leadership on Oct. 4, her ability to get enough votes in parliament was in doubt after the religious-backed Komeito party pulled out of their 26-year alliance.

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader, Sanae Takaichi, has become the country’s first female prime minister, partnering with a small populist party to try to pick up the necessary votes for a first-round victory in parliament. But the hard-right Takaichi has an uncertain mandate that will likely mean new elections before she can get very far with her ambitious agenda.

Takaichi, 64, takes over from Shigeru Ishiba, who was forced out by the party after a dismal showing in July elections for the upper house of parliament where the long-ruling LDP failed to gain a majority in either chamber. Her path to victory has not been a smooth one. After winning the party leadership on Oct. 4, her ability to get enough votes in parliament was in doubt after the religious-backed Komeito party pulled out of their 26-year alliance.

In response, Takaichi took the already-conservative LDP more clearly to the right by linking up with the Japan Innovation Party, a relatively new grouping of politicians mainly from the Kansai region that includes the major city of Osaka. It gained popularity through a hodgepodge of goals that include, strangely, the end of the LDP’s long hold on power. The party also advocates decentralization, tax cuts, lower spending, and a formal designation of Osaka as Japan’s No. 2 city and backup capital (in reality, Yokohama just south of Tokyo is the country’s second-largest city).

The new alliance better reflects Takaichi’s personal philosophy, especially in the areas of defense and views on China. She is a regular visitor to the controversial Yasukuni shrine in central Tokyo that enshrines Japan’s wartime dead,........

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