The Friday Brief with Phoenix Ricks
The Friday Brief is a calm news podcast by Girl Friday, a boutique global affairs firm in Washington, D.C. We believe awareness impels action for a world of good.
The Friday Brief with Phoenix Ricks
France's Iron Throne & Japan's Iron Lady
If you blinked or were listening to The Life of A Showgirl, you may have missed that France's new prime minister resigned within 14 hours of announcing his government. How does France's system work? Why do they have a president and a prime minister? In this episode, we break down France's current political crisis and dive into the great expectations for Sanae Takaichi, the first female Prime Minister of Japan.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram @thefridaybrief and sign up for The Friday Brief newsletter on thefridaybrief.com.
Welcome to The Friday Brief, a news podcast by Girl Friday. I’m Phoenix Ricks, the CEO of Girl Friday and your host. This is your brief for October 9, 2025.
If you blinked or were busy listening to The Life of a Showgirl, you may have missed the rise and fall of President Macron’s new government. His latest prime minister resigned within 14 hours. France has a system with a president and a prime minister, which can be confusing. Their prime minister oversees the daily operations of the national government, which is, of course, no small task. At the same time, the president, who is elected to that role, sets the country's political direction and handles foreign diplomacy.
I tend to explain this type of system to clients as a celebrity-run brand. This is a generalization, but it works. The president is like an A-list celebrity running a huge brand. They’re in all the major meetings about the product launches and the brand’s identity, but they’re also busy filming movies and promoting the brand to their fans. So, the prime minister is ultimately the one negotiating prices with vendors and testing new products with the team. That’s why outside of France, most people only know the name of the president. In rare cases, the prime minister also makes an international splash in their own right. Think of SKIMS with Kim Kardashian and Emma Grede.
Ideally, the prime minister and president work together, sharing different aspects of executive power. In France, the prime minister has the ear of the other ministers and officials, but ultimately, the president holds the cards. In fact, the President of France appoints the Prime Minister. And to make matters a little bit more complex, remember this is a multiparty system, and the balance of power also depends on the parties in office. In the U.S., we have two main parties, and we watch factions within those two parties struggle to dominate the agenda for the entire party. In France, these factions can evolve into distinct parties with separate platforms, but they can still work together in coalitions to pass legislation.
In 2016, Emanuel Macron left one party and founded another one. It is now known as the Renaissance party. It has had two other names in recent history, so if you stumble upon this podcast a year from now, I cannot guarantee it will still have the same name. The party is, by most accounts, politically centrist, so depending on who Macron appoints as prime minister, it can lean to the left or to the right. If the French people don’t like the direction, and they don’t feel that his appointment truly reflects the nation’s wishes based on their elections, they make it known. The AP reports that this marks Macron’s fourth political farewell, and the uncertainty does not inspire confidence in other governments and investors regarding Macron’s direction for the nation.
When the U.S. government shuts down, like right now, I sometimes hear rumblings that it would be better if we had a system with more parties, perhaps like France. But we can see with France’s ongoing situation, even when you have numerous parties, they still have to work together to some degree to pass budgets and legislation. When that fails, and there aren’t enough aligned coalitions, you end up in these types of crises. It must be alarming for our shared allies to see both the U.S. and France spiraling. France isn’t the only country with leadership news, though. The Japanese government is about to welcome its first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. DW says she is a hard-line conservative. So, when you hear that her party is called the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP for short, don’t make assumptions based on U.S., UK, or other European definitions of liberal.
If you’ve been watching Japan, you know they’ve been sliding further to the right in response to immigration and the cost of living. The clamor to make her the prime minister certainly reflects that sentiment. The LDP has been Japan’s ruling party since the end of World War II, but it has been losing support. They are a big-tent conservative party. You’ll find everything in their party. There are moderates, centrists, and nationalists. She won moderates by positioning herself as center-right, though, in my opinion, her political positions lean slightly farther to the right.
But what politicians display domestically isn’t always what they convey internationally. It will be interesting to see how she represents Japan on the world stage. She apparently admires Britain’s Margaret Thatcher and sees herself as Japan's "Iron Lady." But her critics in Japan have called her "Taliban Takaichi." She is reportedly a revisionist of wartime history, and she is hawkish on China. She visits Yasukuni Shrine, which is controversial in Asia because other nations view it as a symbol of Japan’s previous militarism in the region. While the U.S. may appreciate her stance on China, it will be interesting to see how our government and European governments react to her musings on World War II. DW reported that in 2004, she published a column that “justified Japan's role in World War II,” stating that it was "waging a defensive war." My paternal grandfather served during WWII, and I would be remiss if I did not immediately note the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, a site I have personally visited.
While Takaichi will be breaking a glass ceiling in this role, which I think is an incredible achievement, she apparently has extremely traditional views on women’s rights and gender equity. For instance, she supports the Japanese imperial family’s male-only succession model and is opposed to married couples having different surnames.
Donald Trump seems delighted by the prospect of her in office. Reuters reported that he posted to his social media platform, "Japan has just elected its first female Prime Minister, a highly respected person of great wisdom and strength. This is tremendous news for the incredible people of Japan. Congratulations to all!" Of note, the post does not even include her name. I wonder, given her stance on women’s rights, if she will find that an acceptable welcome from the United States of America.
Thank you for listening to The Friday Brief. Make sure you and your friends don’t miss an episode! Check out thefridaybrief.com, and follow The Friday Brief on Instagram. Until next time, I’m Phoenix Ricks, signing off from Washington, DC. Let’s work together for a world of good.
.png)
