Japan recently elected its first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi — and it turns out she’s a die-hard metal fan who grew up listening to BLACK SABBATH and DEEP PURPLE, she plays the drums, and she recently hit a podcast with the members of BABYMETAL.
The leader of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party assumed office earlier this week. A New York Times profile on the politician published on October 21st notes that one of her heroes is late Conservative British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and that she also idolizes IRON MAIDEN — perhaps because of both, the British press began calling Takaichi the “Iron Lady,” a nickname previously given to Thatcher.
Last month, in the lead up to Japan’s general elections, Takaichi spoke with BABYMETAL members Su-Metal, Moa-Metal and Momo-Metal on their Babymetal’s Metal Radio program, and the leader described how she became a fan of heavy music in her childhood, which led her towards playing a number of instruments.
“When I was in elementary school, I started listening to Black Sabbath: Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and things like that,” Takaichi said [via translation from Louder]. “Then, when I got to middle school, Deep Purple came out, and then ‘Burn’ and ‘Smoke on the Water’ and so on, and I got into that.”
Takaichi played bass and keyboard in middle school, and was asked to play keyboards in a “really crappy band” by a “delinquent type.” By the time she hit high school, she was playing drums in an all-female cover band that tackled songs by UFO, the ROLLING STONES, DEEP PURPLE and more. She still hits an electronic kit at home.
“When I get irritated by my husband’s choice of words or behavior, I play the electronic drums after he’s gone to bed,” she told BABYMETAL.
Takaichi formally entered politics in 1992, and was elected into Japan’s House of Representatives as an independent the following year. She’d previously been a protégé of late former prime minister Shinzo Abe and a cabinet member in his government. Her recent campaign ran with the slogan “Japan is Back.”