The election of Sanae Takaichi as Japan’s first female prime minister on Tuesday placed her husband, Taku Yamamoto, as the country’s first male spouse of the prime minister, or “first gentleman.”
Yamamoto, 73, told Jiji Press by phone that he is “relieved” that his wife was elected prime minister.
He said that he and his wife will be even more considerate of each other’s health.
“I’ll support her as a low-key ‘stealth’ husband,” he said.
Yamamoto has served eight terms as a House of Representatives lawmaker since being first elected to the lower chamber of the Diet in 1990. Both Yamamoto and Takaichi belonged to the Liberal Democratic Party’s faction led by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.
In 2004, after Takaichi lost her Lower House seat, Yamamoto proposed to her by phone, saying, “I can make you delicious meals for life because I have a cook’s license.” They married that year and became a lawmaker couple after Takaichi won back a seat in the 2005 Lower House election.
The couple currently lives in the accommodation facility for Lower House members in Tokyo’s Akasaka district. Knowing that Takaichi is not good at cooking, Yamamoto has told her, “The kitchen is my castle, so you don’t have to come in.”
