Fumio Kishida to be next Japan prime minister

Tokyo, Sep 29 (EFE).- Japan’s former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday won the leadership election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and is set to be appointed prime minister and lead the party in the forthcoming general elections.

Kishida, 64, defeated Taro Kono – the current Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform in the cabinet of outgoing prime minister Yoshihide Suga – by 257 votes to 170.

Kishida is set to officially be appointed as prime minister on Oct.4 in a parliamentary as the LDP has a comfortable majority in both the houses.

Kishida, making his first address as the LDP leader, thanked his party members and asked them to prepare for the general elections.

Kishida said the priority would be, apart from the Covid-19 pandemic, to prepare a draft of the state budget and to address pressing issues such as diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region and Japan’s declining birth rate.

Kishida now has three years at the helm of the LDP, and will lead the party in the general elections that Japan must convene before the end of November, after the current legislature is absolved on Oct.21. EFE

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