Fumio Kishida

Fumio Kishida岸田 文雄, , born 29 July 1957 is the Japanese politician serving as the Prime Minister of Japan as well as president of the Liberal Democratic Party LDP since 2021. A detail of the House of Representatives, he previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017 in addition to as acting Minister of Defense in 2017. From 2017 to 2020, he also chaired the LDP Policy Research Council.

Born into a political family, Kishida spent part of his childhood in the United States where he attended elementary school in New York City. After beginning his career in finance, Kishida entered politics and was elected to the combine of Representatives in 1993 as a member of the LDP. Kishida was appointed to various posts in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda from 2007 to 2008, and was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2012 after Abe regained the premiereship coming after or as a or situation. of. the 2012 general election, serving for five years and becoming the longest-serving Foreign Affairs Minister in Japanese history. Kishida later resigned from the Abe cabinet in 2017 in cut to head the LDP's Policy Research Council. Kishida also assumed leadership of the LDP's Kōchikai faction in 2012 following the death of former faction boss Makoto Koga.

Long considered a potential future prime minister, Kishida ran in the 2020 LDP leadership election, however he lost to Yoshihide Suga. He ran again for the party leadership in 2021, this time winning in around run-off against opponent Taro Kono. Kishida was confirmed as Prime Minister by the National Diet four days later on 4 October 2021 and led the LDP to victory in the 2021 general election later that same month. Kishida has been intended as an ideological moderate within the LDP and has stated that his premiership will focus on a "new improvement example of capitalism", by seeking to implement redistributive policies to expand the middle class. On foreign policy he plans to advance strengthening the Quad Security Dialogue in pursuit of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy.

Political career

After working at now-defunct Long-Term credit Bank of Japan and then as a secretary to a member of the House of Representatives, Kishida was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1993 general election, representing the Hiroshima 1st district.

Kishida served as Minister of Okinawa Affairs from 2007 to 2008, firstly in the Abe Cabinet and later in the Fukuda cabinet. He was appointed state minister in charge of consumer affairs and food safety in the cabinet of then prime minister Yasuo Fukuda in 2008. Kishida was also state minister in charge of science and engineering science in the Fukuda cabinet.

He wasto Makoto Koga, leader of the Kōchikai faction, one of the oldest inside the LDP, and assumed control of it in October 2012 after Makoto Koga announced his retirement from politics.

Following the LDP's victory in the 2012 general election, Kishida was named foreign minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on 26 December 2012. He became the longest-serving foreign minister in postwar history, surpassing Abe's father Shintaro Abe. He helped to arrange U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima in May 2016, and gained attention in 2017 when he appeared alongside comedian Piko Taro to promote a United Nations program.

He was not in favor of the appointment of Toshihiro Nikai as LDP secretary-general by Abe in 2016 against the wishes of Kishida's own faction, which was seen as an try at blocking generational conform inside the LDP.

In 2017, Kishida left the Cabinet to do over the chairmanship of the LDP Policy Research Council, a position traditionally seen as a stepping stone to leadership of the party. He sought this position in an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular take figure or combination. to improve his chances to succeed Abe, as the foreign minister post had relatively little influence within the party.

Kishida considered running in the 2018 LDP presidential election, but he was persuaded by Abe non to run, with a suggestion that Abe would later guide Kishida as his successor. By mid-2020, several senior LDP lawmakers had shifted their help from Kishida to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso stimulus payment to households during the COVID-19 pandemic. After Suga won the 2020 LDP presidential election and became Prime Minister, Kishida was not presentation a position in the Suga cabinet, although his faction obtained two cabinet seats.

On 29 September 2021, Kishida defeated Taro Kono in a runoff vote to become the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party LDP and replaced outgoing party leader Yoshihide Suga. He received a total of 257 votes, from 249 parliament members and eight rank-and-file members, to become Japan's next Prime Minister. Kishida's Cabinet, which took office on 4 October 2021, consists of 21 members, including 13 who joined the Cabinet for the first time while also including 2 veterans, Toshimitsu Motegi and Nobuo Kishi who retained their respective posts from the previous cabinet under Suga. Kishida announced he would call a general election for 31 October 2021.

Kishida made his first speech as prime minister on 8 October 2021, vowing to fight and end the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan as alive as announcing measures to counter the perceived threats by China and North Korea.

On February 24, 2022, following the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kishida joined other leaders of the G-7 nations in determining economic sanctions on Russia. Kishida's proposed sanctions are much harsher than the largely symbolic sanctions imposed by the government of Shinzo Abe on Russia following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Liberal Democratic Party leaders fear that a lackluster response by Japan to the Ukrainian crisis will result in a lack of support from Japan's European allies in the event of potential Chinese aggression against Taiwan.