Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Fumio Kishida will become Japan’s prime minister as the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) anointed former foreign minister Kishida as its new leader, virtually ensuring the soft-spoken consensus-builder will become prime minister soon.
Fumio Kishida enjoys only moderate popular support and has a bland image. Kishida but drew critical backing from some party heavyweights, allowing him to stop the momentum of outspoken rising star Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the coronavirus vaccine roll-out.
The Hiroshima lawmaker succeeds unpopular Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who did not seek re-election as party leader after just one year in office. Kishida is almost certain to become premier at a parliamentary session because of the LDP’s majority.
He focused on populist issues – such as the need to forge a new kind of capitalism and ease divisions of wealth – in his first news conference.
“We can’t achieve strong growth if wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small group of people,” he said, citing a need to create a virtuous cycle of growth and wealth distribution.
“We will strive to achieve economic growth and distribution,” of wealth, Kishida added, promising housing and education aid to address income disparity.
He has proposed a spending package of more than 30 trillion yen ($270 billion), and said that stimulus must be compiled by the year-end. Kishida is expected to form a new cabinet and reshuffle the LDP executive in the first half of October month.
Parliament’s lower chamber will probably be dissolved in mid-October with an election. Kishida’s rival Kono, a fluent English speaker with a large following on Twitter and reputation for being forthright and headstrong, has been seen as something of a maverick and therefore not seen as the top choice of some LDP powerbrokers.
