Takaichi's path to the country's top job has been challenging.
In the 2024 LDP presidential race, Takaichi lost to Shigeru Ishiba. She won the leadership of the party in September this year, defeating Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi after Ishiba announced his resignation.
But on Oct. 10, the Komeito party abruptly exited its alliance with the LDP, ending a relationship going back to 1999, putting Takaichi's fate in a limbo.
A hardline conservative, Takaichi has been widely labeled as an apostle of "Abenomics," the economic strategy of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which espoused loose monetary policy, fiscal spending and structural reforms.
She had previously criticized the Bank of Japan's plan to raise interest rates during the 2024 LDP leadership race, although BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda has said that the central bank would set rates "without any preconceptions."
On the geopolitical front, Takaichi has called for a hardline stance toward China and is also in favor of revising Japan's pacifist constitution.
Her previous visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals, have drawn criticism from China and South Korea, which see the site as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression.
Takaichi is going to be "very, very careful" in how she communicates her views, especially on foreign policy," said Kei Okamura, managing director and portfolio manager of Neuberger Berman, told CNBC earlier this month.
"Her views on China and Korea have also been very well flagged. But she also understands that she has to maintain very good relations with all these countries, especially also with the United States, just because all of them have a very big impact in terms of Japan's biggest export destinations."