By Hiroshi Tajima

8:00 JST, December 13, 2025

Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female prime minister, has two role models in politics. One is Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister of the United Kingdom, who served from 1979 to 1990. The other is former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, under whom Takaichi was a cabinet minister.

“I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top but should get you pretty near.”

These words are Thatcher’s. The working style is true of Takaichi as well.

Takaichi has said she read through all the volumes of Thatcher’s memoirs in 1993, the year she was first elected as a member of the House of Representatives. The books have certainly laid the groundwork for her as a lawmaker. She also told us that she still turns the pages of those books even now.

In a speech shortly after winning the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election, Takaichi, wearing a blue suit like those favored by Thatcher, made this pledge to her colleagues: “I will work, work, work, work and work. I will abandon work-life balance. I........

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