TOKYO — Sanae Takaichi, a star of ultraconservative Japanese politics and a rare woman to rise in its male-dominated hierarchy, has been elected the country’s first female prime minister. Takaichi, 64, is also the first woman to lead the Liberal Democratic Party that has dominated Japan’s postwar politics almost without interruption.

Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, appointed just two other women to her cabinet, well below the high of five in other recent administrations but notable for her nomination of the nation’s first female finance minister.

Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi looks set to become Japan's first female prime minister after the right-leaning Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, said it was ready to back her premiership.