World football governing body FIFA has selected Chadian official Alhadi Mahamat as the referee for Nigeria’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Lesotho next week.
The matchday nine encounter is scheduled for the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, South Africa, on Friday, October 10, 2025 and will kick off at 6pm South Africa time, which is 5pm Nigeria time.
Allaou, who was also in charge of Nigeria’s 1-0 win over Rwanda in Uyo on September 6 during matchday seven, will work with compatriots Bogola Issa as first assistant referee, Moussa Hafiz as second assistant referee, and Abdelkerim Ousmane as fourth official.
FIFA also appointed Kenyan official Alice Kimani as referee assessor, while William Shongwe from eSwatini will serve as match commissioner.
Nigeria, currently three points behind first-placed Benin Republic and second-placed South Africa, need an outright victory to enhance their chances of reaching the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals, which will be jointly hosted by the United States of America, Canada and Mexico next summer.
The Super Eagles face a crucial double-header, with the Lesotho clash followed by a decisive home encounter against Benin Republic at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on October 14.
FIFA has confirmed that Egyptian referee Omar Amin Mohamed Amin Mohamed will officiate the Benin match, assisted by compatriots Mahmoud Aboulergal and Ali Teleb.
Nigeria’s qualification hopes received a boost after FIFA sanctioned South Africa for fielding an ineligible player, Teboho Mokoena, in their 2-0 win over Lesotho in March, awarding a 3-0 victory to Lesotho instead.
The decision reshaped the group standings, with Benin and South Africa now tied on 14 points at the top after eight matches, while Nigeria and Rwanda sit just behind with 11 points apiece.
A maximum of six points from their remaining fixtures could take Nigeria to 17 points, potentially enough to secure top spot depending on other results. (Punch)
Electronic Arts, the company behind video games like Madden NFL, Battlefield and The Sims, is being acquired for $US52.5 billion ($80 billion), in what could become the largest-ever buyout funded by private-equity firms.
The private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, and Affinity Partners will pay EA’s stockholders $US210 per share.
Affinity Partners is run by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
If the transaction closes as anticipated, it will end EA’s 36-year history as a publicly traded company.
PIF, which was already the largest insider stakeholder in Electronic Arts, will be rolling over its existing 9.9 per cent stake in the company.
The commitment to the massive deal is in line with recent activity by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, wrote Andrew Marok of Raymond James.
“The Saudi PIF has been a very active player in the video gaming market since 2022, taking minority stakes in most scaled public video gaming publishers, and also outright purchases of companies like ESL, FACEIT, and Scopely,” he wrote.
“The PIF has made its intentions to scale its gaming arm, Savvy Gaming Group, clear, and the EA deal would represent the biggest such move to date by some distance.”
Electronic Arts would be taken private and its headquarters would remain in Redwood City, California.
The total value of the deal eclipses the $US32 billion price paid to take Texas utility TXU private in 2007.
EA’s initial public offering on the stock market came seven years after it was founded by former Apple employee William “Trip” Hawkins, who began playing analog versions of baseball and football made by Strat-O-Matic as a teenager during the 1960s.
Chief executive Andrew Wilson has led the company since 2013 and he will remain in that role, the firms said on Monday, local time.
“Electronic Arts is an extraordinary company with a world-class management team and a bold vision for the future,” Mr Kushner, who serves as CEO of Affinity Partners, said.
“I’ve admired their ability to create iconic, lasting experiences, and as someone who grew up playing their games — and now enjoys them with his kids — I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.”
This marks the second high-profile deal involving Silver Lake and a technology company with a legion of loyal fans in recent weeks.
Silver Lake is also part of a newly formed joint venture spearheaded by Oracle involved in a deal to take over the US oversight of TikTok’s social video platform, although all the details of that complex transaction have not been divulged yet. (ABC)
Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina on Monday appointed an army general as prime minister, hoping to quell surging protests against his leadership that have plunged the country into crisis.
In the latest in days of youth-led marches, security forces dispersed hundreds of demonstrators with tear gas in Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, injuring at least one, AFP reporters saw.
Sparked by anger against persistent water and power cuts in the impoverished Indian Ocean island, the demonstrations started on September 25 and have grown into an angry campaign for Rajoelina to resign.
“With wisdom, I have decided to appoint Ruphin Fortunat Dimbisoa Zafisambo, divisional general, as prime minister of the government,” Rajoelina said late Monday in a declaration at the presidential palace.
The new premier should “serve the people” and be “someone clean, with integrity, and who works quickly”, he said, promising he was “ready to save Madagascar”.
The Gen Z movement that rallied the protests on social media responded by repeating calls for Rajoelina to resign.
It said it was giving him a 48-hour “ultimatum” to “respond favourably” to their demands.
“As long as Andry Rajoelina remains in power, we will continue to fight,” the group said on social media.
Rajoelina’s move to sack his entire government last week failed to placate the demonstrators.
University students and residents gathered near the University of Ankatso on the outskirts of the capital on Monday, the 12th day of the movement.
They then marched towards the city centre, where they were stopped by a barricade put up by security forces.
Clashes erupted throughout the afternoon, with at least one young man wounded and evacuated to the main hospital, AFP reporters saw.
“There are about 120 hours of power cuts per week where I live,” said 21-year-old protester Tommy Fanomezantsoa.
“We are protesting for everyone’s sake,” he told AFP. “The president is not listening to the anger of the people at the bottom. He always does what he wants.”
The Ankatso district was the birthplace of a 1972 revolt that led to the ousting of the first president of the poverty-stricken island, Philibert Tsiranana.
“The future of this country depends on me, on you, on all of us,” one of the protest leaders told the crowd of several hundred people, urging them not to allow the movement to lose momentum.
“We can clearly see that democracy in Madagascar is not respected at all,” said another protest leader.
“They are even destroying it with brutality,” he said.
He was referring to a United Nations statement last week that at least 22 people had been killed in the protests and more than 100 wounded, a figure rejected by the authorities. (Punch)
France’s outgoing Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, was due to start a last-ditch effort on Tuesday to rally cross-party support for a cabinet lineup that would pull his country out of a political deadlock.
President Emmanuel Macron tasked Lecornu, 39, with forming a government in early September after parliament toppled his predecessor over an unpopular austerity budget.
Lecornu unveiled a new cabinet on Sunday evening, but it immediately drew criticism for containing many of the same faces from the previous government, and Lecornu resigned on Monday morning.
But in a twist, Lecornu had by Monday evening accepted Macron’s request that he spend two days trying to salvage his administration.
Macron tasked Lecornu with “conducting final negotiations by Wednesday evening to define a platform of action and stability for the country,” a presidential official said, asking not to be named.
The president was ready to “assume his responsibilities” in case of failure, the official said, appearing to allude to his calling new legislative elections.
Lecornu was from 9:00 am (0700 GMT) to meet party leaders at the prime minister’s office in an attempt to breach the impasse.
A political crisis has rocked France for over a year, after Macron called snap polls in mid-2024, which ended in a hung parliament.
The chaos comes ahead of the 2027 presidential elections, expected to be a historic crossroads in French politics, with the French far right under Marine Le Pen sensing its best chance yet of taking power.
Edouard Philippe, a former premier and centre-right contender in the next presidential elections, on Tuesday slammed what he called a “distressing political game”.
He urged Macron to call early presidential elections as soon as the 2026 budget was approved.
Within Macron’s own ranks, Gabriel Attal — who was prime minister until last year and now leads the president’s centrist party — on Monday evening said he no longer understood Macron’s decisions.
After a succession of new premiers, it was “time to try something else”, he said.
Le Pen on Monday said it would be “wise” for Macron to resign but also urged snap legislative polls as “necessary”.
The party leader of Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, said it would be “ready to govern”.
Socialist party leader Olivier Faure late Monday called for “a change of course” with a “left-wing government”.
Bruno Retailleau, leader of the right-wing Republicans and outgoing interior minister, said he was not against remaining in a cabinet with Macron’s centrists as long as it did not mean fewer members from his party.
Lecornu’s two immediate predecessors, Francois Bayrou and Michel Barnier, were ousted by parliament in a standoff over an austerity budget.
Any next premier will still face the challenge of finding enough support for the spending bill in a chamber where the Macron-friendly bloc is in a minority.
The crisis comes as France’s public debt has reached a record high.
France’s debt-to-GDP ratio is now the European Union’s third-highest after Greece and Italy, and is close to twice the 60 percent permitted under EU rules.
Macron has so far resisted calls for fresh parliamentary polls and ruled out resigning before his mandate ends in 2027.He could also look for a new prime minister, who would be the eighth of the president’s mandate, but would face a struggle to survive without radical change. (Punch)
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles have advanced to the Round of 16 at the ongoing 24th FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile, following a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Colombia in the early hours of Monday.
At the Estadio Fiscal de Talca, the seven-time African champions delivered a spirited performance, with goalkeeper Ebenezer Harcourt making crucial saves in the 23rd and 26th minutes to keep the scores level during a tense opening period.
Despite Colombia’s early pressure, the Nigerians were the more enterprising side, with Tahir Maigana, Kparobo Arierhi, and Suleman Sani constantly troubling the South American defence and striking the upright on several occasions.
Colombia broke the deadlock in the 51st minute through Kener Gonzalez, who converted from Neyser Villareal’s assist.
Undeterred, the Flying Eagles piled on relentless pressure, and defender Odinaka Okoro came close with a header in the 76th minute.
Nigeria’s persistence paid off in the 86th minute when captain Daniel Bameyi calmly slotted home from the penalty spot after a Colombian defender handled Maigana’s goal-bound effort.
The Nigerians nearly clinched a late winner, but Arierhi’s shot in the 89th minute was blocked inside the area.
The result means Nigeria will now face Argentina at the Estadio Nacional Julio Martinez Pradanos in Santiago on Wednesday a repeat of the quarter-final clash from the last U20 World Cup hosted by Argentina, where the Flying Eagles triumphed 2–0 in San Juan.
Elsewhere, Colombia will meet South Africa, while Norway takes on Paraguay in other Round of 16 fixtures. (Punch)
The United States men’s national team secured first place in Group E at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, despite a 2-1 defeat to South Africa in their group-stage finale on Sunday in Rancagua.
The USMNT will face Italy next Thursday, Oct. 9, in a Round of 16 matchup.
Following South Africa’s victory and France’s 6-0 win over New Caledonia, three teams finished with 6 points in Group E. The U.S. claimed the top spot thanks to a commanding +10 goal differential, narrowly beating South Africa (+5) in second place and France (+4) in third.
France now hopes to advance to the knockout stage as one of the four best third-place teams. New Caledonia closed out Group E after three consecutive defeats, conceding 20 goals and scoring just one.
The U.S. took an early lead in the 12th minute when Noah Cobb headed home off a set piece. But just five minutes later, South Africa equalized with an own goal by American defender Joshua Wynder.
Bafana Bafana took the lead in first-half added time when Gomolemo Kekana finished a quick counterattack.
In the second half, the Americans pushed for an equalizer, but their defense was exposed to the South Africans’ rapid breaks.
U.S. coach Marko Mitrovic made six changes to the Starting XI that defeated France 3-0 on Thursday, with Cobb making his first appearance of the tournament, while Reed Baker-Whiting, Luca Bombino, Luke Brennan, Matthew Corcoran, and Pedro Soma all earned their first starts.
This is the 13th time the U.S. has advanced from the group stage of the U20 World Cup. The 2025 edition marks the sixth time the Americans have accomplished this feat as group winners. (ESPN)
Defending champion Jannik Sinner retired on Sunday from the Shanghai Masters after suffering from cramps in his third-round match against the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor, easing the way for Novak Djokovic’s shot at a record-extending fifth title.
The 38-year-old Serb battled through to the last 16 with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, despite admitting that he had been “hanging by a rope” early in the match.
It was a sorry end for Sinner, who had been hoping this week to add to his China Open victory.
The world number two began to experience issues in the fourth game of the third set, trying doggedly to persevere before abandoning the match at 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 3-2.
Sinner ended the fourth game crouched over in pain and limping around the court.
He tried to play through it but did not improve, hitting the ball into the net multiple times to provide an easy break for his opponent.
He could barely walk at the end of the fifth game and had to be helped to his chair before accepting reality and calling it quits.
“(It was) a very unfortunate ending to what I thought was a high-quality match,” Griekspoor said. “Not the way you want to win — brutal conditions here… I wish him a speedy recovery.”
After an evenly matched first set, four-time Grand Slam winner Sinner had shown his teeth in the tiebreak, hitting two aces to take an early lead.
In the second set the tension picked up, with Griekspoor surviving three break points in the second game.
But it was the Dutchman who broke in the 11th game with a backhand, pushing the match into post-midnight territory.
Earlier, 24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic was given a mighty scare by the 150th-ranked Hanfmann.
The Serb fired two aces to start, delighting the crowd, but soon ran into trouble as Hanfmann found his range.
The German broke in the third game and held serve after that to clinch the first set.
“I was just outplayed by a better player for a set and a half –- I was hanging by a rope to stay in the match,” Djokovic said.
Neither player was able to take control of a grueling second set, until a series of unforced errors from Hanfmann in the 12th game gave Djokovic the opening he needed.
Sweating in 28C humidity at 9 p.m., the 24-time Grand Slam champion then broke in the fourth game of the third set as his 33-year-old opponent’s precision dropped.
Cheered on by a stadium full of adoring fans, Djokovic held his resolve to take the third set after Hanfmann hit the ball out.
“I had to dig in really, really deep to come out from this match as a winner, and I think the energy and support of the crowd really got me out,” Djokovic said.
American Taylor Fritz was another top-10 casualty of the day, after he fell to 37th-ranked Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4, 7-5.
On a hot afternoon, the world number four seemed lethargic and struggled to get into his stride, unnerved after Mpetshi Perricard nearly broke twice in the fifth game.
That preempted a streak of brilliance that saw the neon orange-clad Frenchman fire three aces to hold the sixth, then break in the seventh.
A closely fought second set came to a head in the 11th game when a double fault by Fritz handed Mpetshi Perricard the advantage, which he swiftly converted with a backhand.
Finishing the match off with two aces, the big-serving 22-year-old said he could be proud of himself.
“It was tough to be honest, tough conditions, very humid,” he said.
“The game at 5-5 (in the second set), it was terrible. I thought I was dying on the court,” he chuckled.
Mpetshi Perricard will next face 11th-ranked Dane Holger Rune, who beat France’s Ugo Humbert, 6-4, 6-4. (JapanToday)
South Africa retained the Rugby Championship crown for the first time after beating Argentina 29-27 at Twickenham on Saturday.
The title was decided on points difference for the first time, the Springboks’ 57-plus margin eclipsing New Zealand’s eight-plus.
The All Blacks beat Australia 28-14 in Perth hours earlier to put pressure on the Springboks, who clinched the title decider in typically punchy style.
They didn’t lead until the 44th minute, gradually overwhelming the Pumas with the power of their set-piece.
“Not the most perfect game we’ve played but it is the fight we show each and every week,” Springboks captain Siya Kolisi said. “It doesn’t always go the way we want it to go but we are always able to find that second gear. With the bench that we have, they are special.”
Taking advantage of the superior muscle up front, scrumhalf Cobus Reinach — named the player of the match — and hooker Malcolm Marx scored two tries each.
The Pumas weren’t as close to South Africa as the scoreline suggested. They scored two late converted tries but finished with the wooden spoon for the first time since 2022.
Argentina gave up the scheduled home match to relocate to Twickenham for bigger ticket revenue, and the Springboks felt more at home thanks to expatriates filling an impressive crowd of 70,360. They celebrated the Springboks’ sixth title in 30 tournaments and their first back-to-back crowns.
“After the way we started (with the shocking loss to the Wallabies at Ellis Park), you could not have said we would be here now,” Kolisi said. “But the belief we have in ourselves is because of what coach Rassie (Erasmus) has instilled into this team. Since 2018, the mindset created means you don’t feel at any moment that you are going to lose. No matter how it looks.”
It didn’t go to plan at the start on Saturday either.
Center Canan Moodie was yellow-carded in the second minute for head-on-head contact, and moments later Argentina gave right winger Bautista Delguy space and time to bust through Reinach and Ethan Hooker to the try-line.
South Africa’s first scrum tighthead was rewarded with a Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty.
World Cup winner Ox Nche gave a torrid time to scrum opposite Francisco Coria Marchetti. He debuted in June against the British and Irish Lions and always appeared off the bench until Joel Sclavi was injured on Friday in the captain’s run. That forced the Pumas to start Coria Marchetti, their 10th change to the starting XV that lost to the Springboks 67-30 in Durban last weekend.
Despite Nche being the only change to the Springboks starting XV, they struggled to click at Twickenham. Feinberg-Mngomezulu, the star in Durban, passed over Cheslin Kolbe’s head in one of 10 handling errors in the half.
Santiago Carreras’ second penalty extended Argentina’s lead to 13-3 then Moodie was lucky not to receive a second yellow card and subsequent red when his deliberate knock-on was only penalized.
But South Africa finished the half strong. Lock Eben Etzebeth was held up over the line by Pumas flyhalf Geronimo Prisciantelli but when No. 8 Jasper Wiese lost control of a pushover try Reinach was too close to the line to be stopped.
The second half started badly for Argentina. Loosehead prop Mayco Vivas was sin-binned for a high tackle, and South Africa drove the subsequent lineout, dishing a 26th test try for Marx.
South Africa finally had the lead and an extra man. RG Snyman took over for Etzebeth, who went to the blood bin, and his pop-up helped Reinach burrow over for his second try and extend the lead to 22-13.
Before the game was an hour old, Marx regained an Argentina lineout tap down from his own throw-in then crashed over for his second try of the match. It also was his 17th in championship history, tying him with Richie McCaw for the most tries by a forward.
When Coria Marchetti injured his right leg, the Pumas finishing props were four-cap Boris Wenger and 20-year-old debutant Tomás Rapetti. They were consoled by Delguy’s second try from a wild pass by Kolbe, and fellow wing Rodrigo Isgro scoring after the hooter from a crossfield kick by Carreras. (JapanToday)
Erling Haaland carried Manchester City to within three points of Premier League leaders Arsenal with the only goal at Brentford, while Crystal Palace’s 19-game unbeaten run was ended by a 2-1 defeat to Everton on Sunday.
The Norwegian maintained his sensational early season form to score his 18th goal for club and country in just 11 appearances this season.
Haaland showed his strength to bully his way through the Brentford defence from Josko Gvardiol’s long ball and fire home on nine minutes.
Victory came at a cost for Pep Guardiola’s men as Rodri was forced off in his latest injury setback since returning from an anterior cruciate ligament tear that saw him miss most of last season.
The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner was in tears when he had to be replaced with an apparent hamstring problem midway through the first half.
Despite a less than sparkling performance, City held out to haul themselves up to fifth and right back into the title race.
Palace missed the chance to go second after suffering a European hangover at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The Eagles were dominant in the first 45 minutes but were left to rue not adding to Daniel Munoz’s finish from Ismaila Sarr’s pass.
However, their UEFA Conference League exertions in winning away to Dynamo Kyiv on Thursday took their toll in the second half.
Iliman Ndiaye equalised from the penalty spot after Maxence Lacroix clumsily upended Beto as Everton fought back to avoid a first defeat at their new home.
Jack Grealish then got fortunate for his first Everton goal as Munoz’s attempted clearance rebounded off the Manchester City loanee into the roof of the net.
“I thought Crystal Palace should have been out of sight, they should have been 3-0 up, but we stuck at it,” said Everton boss David Moyes.
Ange Postecoglou’s wait for a first win as Nottingham Forest manager goes on after a 2-0 defeat at Newcastle.
The Australian is the first Forest boss in over 100 years to fail to win in his first seven games and now faces an anxious wait to see if club owner Evangelos Marinakis decides to make another managerial change over the international break.
“I knew it was a big challenge walking in. That’s what it is and there’s nothing wrong with that,” said Postecoglou.
Newcastle had only won one of their opening six Premier League games.
But Bruno Guimaraes led the Magpies to victory with a brilliant strike from outside the box to break the deadlock on 58 minutes.
Guimaraes then won a penalty after robbing former team-mate Elliot Anderson inside the Forest box.
Nick Woltemade smashed the resulting spot-kick into the top corner for his fourth Newcastle goal since joining from Stuttgart last month.
Forest slip to 17th, the same league position that saw Postecoglou sacked by Tottenham at the end of last season despite winning the Europa League.
After a slow start to the season, Aston Villa beat Burnley 2-1 to secure a fourth win in the last 11 days.
Donyell Malen was the Villa match-winner with his first goals since April.
The Dutch forward opened the scoring after racing onto Boubacar Kamara’s brilliant through ball to slot into the far corner.
Morgan Rogers was the creator for the second that Malen controlled before drilling confidently into the far corner.
Lesley Ugochukwu pulled a goal back but Burnley remain in the relegation zone.
Wolves are still rooted to the foot of the table after conceding a late equaliser to draw 1-1 at home to Brighton. (JapanToday)
Japan’s ruling party picked hardline conservative 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 neighbors.
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 on October 15. Takaichi is favored 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.
Takaichi got 183 votes, while Koizumi garnered 156 in a runoff.
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.”
Takaichi, who says her hero is Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, offers a starker vision for change than Koizumi and is potentially more disruptive.
An advocate of late premier Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” strategy to boost the economy with aggressive spending and easy monetary policy, she has previously criticized the Bank of Japan’s interest rate increases.
Such a spending shift could spook investors worried about one of the world’s biggest debt loads.
Naoya Hasegawa, chief bond strategist at Okasan Securities in Tokyo, said Takaichi’s election had weakened the chances of the BOJ raising rates this month, which markets had priced at around a 60% chance before the vote.
Takaichi has also raised the possibility of redoing an investment deal with U.S. President Donald Trump that lowered his punishing tariffs in return for Japanese taxpayer-backed investment.
The U.S. ambassador to Japan, George Glass, congratulated Takaichi, posting on X that he looked forward to strengthening the Japan-U.S. partnership “on every front”.
But her nationalistic positions – such as her regular visits to the Yasukuni shrine to Japan’s war dead, viewed by some Asian countries as a symbol of its past militarism – may rile neighbors like South Korea and China.
South Korea will seek to “cooperate to maintain the positive momentum in South Korea-Japan relations”, President Lee Jae Myung’s office said in a statement.
Takaichi also favors revising Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution and suggested this year that Japan could form a “quasi-security alliance” with Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te welcomed her election, saying she was a “steadfast friend of Taiwan”.
“It is hoped that under the leadership of the new (LDP) President Takaichi, Taiwan and Japan can deepen their partnership in areas such as economic trade, security, and technological cooperation,” he said in a statement.
If elected prime minister, Takaichi said she would travel overseas more regularly than her predecessor to spread the word that “Japan is Back!”
“I have thrown away my own work-life balance and I will work, work, work,” Takaichi said in her victory speech.
Some of her supporters viewed her selection as a watershed in Japan’s male-dominated politics, though opinion polls suggest her socially conservative positions are favored more by men than women.
“The fact that a woman was chosen might be seen positively. I think it shows that Japan is truly starting to change and that message is getting across,” 30-year-old company worker Misato Kikuchi said outside Tokyo’s Shimbashi station.
Takaichi must also seek to blunt the rise of Sanseito, which broke into the political mainstream in a July election, appealing to conservative voters disillusioned with the LDP.
Echoing Sanseito’s warnings about foreigners, she kicked off her first official campaign speech with an anecdote about tourists reportedly kicking sacred deer in her hometown of Nara.
Takaichi, whose mother was a police officer, promised to clamp down on rule-breaking visitors and immigrants, who have come to Japan in record numbers in recent years.”We hope she will … steer Japanese politics in an ‘anti-globalism’ direction to protect national interests and help the people regain prosperity and hope,” Sanseito said in a statement. (JapanToday)
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