Kishida wins race to become Japan’s PM
Former diplomat edges the seemingly more popular Taro Kono, Japan’s vaccine czar. His next big test is a general election to be held soon
TOKYO: Fumio Kishida secured Japan’s premiership by showing his strength among ruling party insiders. Now, the ex-diplomat who has conceded that some see him as boring will have to prove that he can win over voters frustrated with the government’s coronavirus policies.
Kishida, 64, is set to become Japan’s prime minister after defeating a more popular reformer, Taro Kono, in an election on Wednesday to lead the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
While Kishida can all but guarantee that the LDP will install him as premier at a special session on Monday, keeping the job will require convincing a sceptical public he deserves it in a general election within weeks.
“The problem is how far he can appeal to voters as the face of the election,” said Yu Uchiyama, a professor of politics at University of Tokyo. “He’s managed to become a bit more appealing in the course of the leadership campaign, but it will remain an issue in the run-up to the general election.”
Kishida was seen as the safe choice to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and guide the world’s third largest economy as it seeks to rebound from the pandemic. Although the former foreign minister from Hiroshima has promised a leftward shift in spending, he has steered clear of progressive social agenda.
“There’s disappointment that with Kishida there’s a possibility that the LDP will remain the same way it is now, without any changes,” said Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at NLI Research Institute.
Kishida will be expected to prepare to guide the LDP not only through a general election that must be held by November, but an upper house poll next year. That schedule probably doesn’t provide enough time before facing voters to make good on promises to deliver tens of trillions of yen in stimulus spending and redistribute the growth.
“The coronavirus has divided the hearts of the people of this country, and I want to bring back the spirit of working together as one team to overcome this national crisis,” Kishida told a post-victory news conference.
Kishida pledged to appoint a younger leadership team and preserve the LDP’s majority in parliament with coalition partner Komeito.
Kishida’s win caps an LDP election in which two of the four candidates were female. Although Kono and Kishida were nearly tied on the first ballot, Kishida’s support among MPs pushed him over the top in the second round after Sanae Takaichi and Seiko Noda, both female and former internal affairs ministers, were eliminated.
Kishida - seen as a dove on foreign policy for his opposition to nuclear weapons and efforts to resolve a dispute over Japan’s past militarism in the Korean Peninsula - showed a harder edge in his leadership campaign. He has accused China of wanting to export its authoritarian system, and said Japan’s defence spending will continue to rise.