Fumio Kishida to succeed Yoshihide Suga as Japan new Prime Minister

Kishida succeeds outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year since taking office last September.

Fumio Kishida, Japan’s former Foreign Minister will succeed Yoshihide Suga to become the next Prime Minister as he won he governing party leadership election.

Kishida succeeds outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year since taking office last September.

Kishida as the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will be elected the next Prime Minister on Monday in parliament. He beat out Taro Kono, who was widely regarded as the most popular candidate.

His first mission as Prime Minister will be to lead the LDP to victory in an upcoming general election.

Kishida, 64, has long targeted the Prime Ministerial role, losing out to Suga in last year's poll. He faces a set of tough issues including post-pandemic economic recovery and confronting threats from North Korea.

The new leader also needs to change the party's high-handed reputation, worsened by the outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga who angered the public over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and insistence on holding the Olympics in Tokyo this past summer, AP reported.

Widely regarded as a safe pair of hands despite a low-key presence, Kishida has sometimes been characterised as a lack of charisma.

He has pledged to spend big on new pandemic stimulus while vowing to tackle income inequality and move away from the neo-liberal economics that have dominated Japanese politics for the past two decades.

There are conjectures that Kishida’s elevation may prove to be beneficial for India as he gears up to take over the reins as the new PM of Japan.

It is being said that Japan may pave the way for India to become a base of economic growth for the Indo-Pacific region and the world.