Tokyo – Japan’s parliament on Tuesday elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister, a day after her struggling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) struck a coalition deal expected to shift her government further to the right.

Takaichi, 64, replaces Shigeru Ishiba, ending three months of political wrangling since the LDP’s disastrous election loss in July. Ishiba, who lasted just one year in office, resigned earlier Tuesday with his Cabinet, paving the way for his successor.

In the lower house vote, which elects the prime minister, Takaichi won 237 votes — four more than a majority — defeating Yoshiko Noda of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, who secured 149.

The LDP’s new alliance with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), a right-leaning O

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