Former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was elected after the first round and run-off voting in today’s election for the president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.
As the leader of the majority party assumes the role of prime minister, Kishida-elect will take office as prime minister on the 4th of next month.
Kishida-elect received 256 votes in the first round of voting involving members of the National Assembly and Party members. It received one more vote than her competitor, Kono.
In the runoff ballot that was held because no candidate received more than a majority, Kishida won 257 votes and defeated Kono Kono with only 170 votes.
Initially, even in Japan, there were many predictions that Kishida, who has a lot of support from members of the National Assembly and others, would lead the way if it went to the runoff voting. Candidate Kono had high public support, so he tried to win the first round of voting, but was defeated.
In the first round of elections for the LDP governor, the proportion of members of the National Assembly and local party members is halved. In addition, former Prime Ministers Abe and Aso came together as a ‘van Kono’ to prevent a generational shift and supported Kishida candidate.
Kishida was appointed as deputy minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2001 during the cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi. After that, he served as Foreign Minister from December 2012 to August 2017 during the Abe administration, and led the Korea-Japan comfort women agreement in December 2015.
