How Sanae Takaichi won over disillusioned young voters
A supporter holds a flyer for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is also president of the Liberal Democratic Party, alongside an English vocabulary book at an LDP election rally in the city of Saitama on Tuesday. | BLOOMBERG
By Erica Yokoyama and Akemi Terukina BLOOMBERG Feb 4, 2026Three months into her tenure as Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi is connecting with younger voters in a way her predecessors failed.
She plays "Golden” from the film "K-Pop Demon Hunters" on the drums with South Korea’s president and takes selfies with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In the evenings, she prefers to sharpen her policy knowledge at home rather than wining and dining Japan’s old-guard business elite behind closed doors. From her handbags to her pink pens, orders are surging for items that have unexpectedly captured the zeitgeist.
So far, her PR strategy of presenting herself as different seems to have struck a chord with Japan’s youth, likely clawing back some of the votes lost to opposition parties with savvier social media reach in the Upper House election last year. The question for Takaichi is how much that support will carry through in Sunday’s closely watched Lower House election.
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