The moderate Fumio Kishida was elected by a large majority as head of the Liberal Democratic Party, the right in power in Japan,
A 64-year-old former foreign minister, he won 257 votes in the second round of an internal party ballot against 170 votes for his opponent Taro Kono.
Fumio Kishida is guaranteed to be appointed Prime Minister in the vote that will take place in Parliament on October 4.
The current Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, unpopular in the public opinion after a year at the head of a country marked as elsewhere by the health crisis, had decided not to stand for this vote of the PLD which has dominated Japanese political life since 1955.
Fumio Kishida must now lead his party in the battle of the legislative elections due to take place by November, for which he is the favorite.
“We must show the public that the PLD is resurrected and needs its support” for these elections to the two chambers of Parliament, he declared after his victory. “Let’s go to the election united,” he said.
In his speech, Fumio Kishida promised to push through stimulus packages worth the equivalent of several billion euros, a commitment that could be decisive in order to garner the vote of the public, unhappy with the management of the pandemic by the government.
Kishida, head of Japanese diplomacy from 2012 to 2017 and heir to a family of politicians, had failed in 2020 against Suga.
But the consensual personality of Mr. Kishida, perceived by some as not very charismatic, reassured the parliamentarians of the PLD, deeming him “a safer value for stability, longevity, etc. They have already made this bet in the past”, according to analyst Brad Glosserman, an expert on Japanese politics and professor at Tama University.
Fumio Kishida should not stray from the line of his predecessors when it comes to defense, diplomacy and economics.
Affirming his desire to reduce social inequalities and to conduct a “policy of generosity”, he nevertheless said at the same time that he wanted to consolidate public finances.
“A certain vagueness reigns over his deep convictions,” commented Corey Wallace, senior lecturer at the University of Kanagawa, near Tokyo. “There is nothing that stands out particularly on what will be its main hobbyhorse.”
Many challenges await the future prime minister, from driving a post-pandemic economic recovery to threats posed by North Korea and China.
Reference-feedproxy.google.com