Kishida Confirmed As New LDP Chief, Next PM

Former foreign minister Fumio Kishida has been confirmed as the next leader of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and therefore is set to succeed incumbent PM Yoshihide Suga following a Diet session on 4 October.

• Kishida defeated Vaccines Minister Taro Kono by a margin of 257 votes to 170 in a second-round run-off following a first round earlier in the day in which no single candidate achieve majority support.
• Kishida has advocated some notable breaks with the Suga/Abe gov'ts, including a JPY30trn stimulus package, and was quoted last week as saying that "Fiscal reform is the direction we need to head for eventually, though we won't try to fill Japan's deficit with immediate tax hikes," with his view that the sales tax should not be raised from 10% 'for about a decade'.
• Takes a relatively hardline stance on China, advocating for greater Japanese cooperation with allies in the Indo-Pacific such as the US and Australia, saying during the leadership campaign that "In order to protect such universal values as freedom, democracy, rule of law and human rights, we need to say firmly what needs to be said in the face of the expansion of authoritarian regimes like China, while cooperating with countries that share such values,".
• Will be interesting to see public reaction to Kishida's election. Kono was seen as the candidate more popular with the public, while Kishida won favour among his LDP parliamentary colleagues. Could face a backlash if Kishisa is seen as an 'insider's candidate' rather than a popular winner.