Japan’s new Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida has taken charge earlier today (Monday). The newly-elected Prime Minister has already been tasked with leading the world’s third-largest economy out of the coronavirus pandemic. Kishida, a moderate liberal, inherits a Japan plagued by rising Covid-19 infections, a stagnant economy, a rapidly ageing population, and rising tensions with China.
Kishida, 64, who was elected head of the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) last week, has been formally recognized as the country’s 100th Prime Minister.
Following the election, Kishida announced his new Cabinet, which includes former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s allies. Thirteen of the 20 members have never served in the Cabinet before, three are women, and the average age is 61.
Kishida served as Japan’s foreign minister from 2012-2017. Now, in 2021, he has taken over from former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who declared earlier this month that he will not seek re-election as head of his party after a turbulent term marked by a drop in public popularity as he battled to control the coronavirus.
According to analysts, Kishida is regarded as a consensus builder and a stable pick by the establishment. However, the political veteran was not a popular pick; he had little public support and struggled to shed his reputation as a dreary bureaucrat.
Keith Henry, president of political risk and business consulting firm Asia Strategy said “He’s not going to be a TV star. He’s not going to capture the imagination of the average Japanese person. But the Japanese people want stability and security, and I think he will be able to provide that”.
Kishida was elected to Parliament for the first time in 1993 and is an advocate of nuclear disarmament. In 2016 he accompanied former President Barack Obama during his visit to Hiroshima, which was destroyed in atomic bombing by the United States in World War II.
