JAPAN – The former Internal Affairs Minister Sanae Takaichi is poised to become the first female to be Japan’s Prime Minister after winning the first round and run-off on Saturday in the Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) leadership race.

Takaichi’s competitors included Farm Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, whom she faced in the second round, as well as Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, and former Economic Security Minister Takayuki Kobayashi.

Takaichi won 185 votes, while Koizumi won a total of 156 votes.

In the run-off, the two candidates were aiming to get a majority of 341 votes up for grabs, with 294 of them coming from the lawmakers.

“I decided to run in this presidential election because of a profound sense of crisis: the LDP must change for the sake of Japan’s present and future. I want to create a politics that transforms the anxieties about daily life and the future into hope,” Takaichi earlier said during a speech after the first round.

The leadership vote, originally scheduled for 2027, was moved forward after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation on Sept. 7, after the coalition’s defeat in July’s upper house elections.

The new president of the party is highly likely to become Japan’s next prime minister, although the LDP-led coalition does not hold a majority in parliament.

If Takaichi becomes Japan’s next prime minister, she will be the first woman to hold the office and lead the ruling LDP.

Since former head Shinzo Abe’s assassination in 2022, the LDP leadership has been under pressure because of scandals, including one involving a slush fund.