The selection of Sanae Takaichi as Japan’s 104th prime minister is remarkable in many respects, but none more so than it shatters the glass ceiling for women in Nagatacho’s upper echelons of power. At the same time, her appointment may prove to be a “glass cliff” — a historic opportunity fraught with risk. Takaichi has become the first female prime minister in a country where women hold less than 16% of the seats in the Lower House of parliament. Across Japanese society, examples of women in