Japan's ruling party picked conservative nationalist Sanae Takaichi as its head on Saturday, putting her on course to become the country's first female prime minister in a move set to jolt investors and neighbours.
The Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for almost all of the postwar era, elected Takaichi, 64, to regain trust from a public angered by rising prices and drawn to opposition groups promising stimulus and clampdowns on migrants.
A vote in parliament to choose a replacement for outgoing Shigeru Ishiba is expected to be held on October 15. Takaichi is favoured as the ruling coalition has the largest number of seats.
Takaichi, the only woman among the five LDP candidates, beat a challenge from the more moderate Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, who was bidding to become the youngest modern leader.
A former economic security and internal affairs minister with an expansionary fiscal agenda for the world's fourth-largest economy, Takaichi takes over a party in crisis.
Various other parties, including the expansionist Democratic Party for the People and the anti-immigration Sanseito, have been steadily luring voters, especially younger ones, away from the LDP.
The LDP and its coalition partner lost their majorities in both houses under Ishiba over the past year, triggering his resignation.
"Recently, I have heard harsh voices from across the country saying we don’t know what the LDP stands for anymore," Takaichi said in a speech before the second-round vote. "That sense of urgency drove me. I wanted to turn people’s anxieties about their daily lives and the future into hope."
