Fumio Kishida
is a Japanese politician. Kishida is the Prime Minister of Japan since 4 October 2021. In September 2021, he was elected President of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan from 2012 to 2017 during the Shinzo Abe government. Kishida was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993.
Early life
Kishida was born in Shibuya, Tokyo on 29 July 1957. He spent his early years in New York City.
Kishida studied law at Waseda University and graduated in 1982.
Political career
He is a member of the House of Representatives for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1993. He served in Yasuo Fukuda' s cabinet as minister of state for Okinawa and northern territories affairs, science and technology policy, quality-of-life policy, and regulatory Reform. He became the longest-serving foreign minister in postwar history, unseating Abe' s father Shintaro Abe. In 2017, for a short time he was the Minister of Defense.
Leadership campaigns
Kishida thought about running in the 2018 LDP presidential election; but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talked him into not to run and promised to support him as his replacement in the future. He ran in the 2020 LDP presidential election; however lost to Yoshihide Suga who was very popular among LDP politicians.
Prime Minister
In August 2020, he announced his candidacy for the Liberal Democratic leadership election to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. He lost the election on 14 September to Yoshihide Suga, coming in second place. In August 2021, he announced his candidacy for the Liberal Democratic leadership again in the 2021 election. He won the leadership election on 29 September 2021.
Kishida officially became the 100th Prime Minister on 4 October 2021 after being elected by the National Diet. He set the date of the 2021 election for 31 October shortly before taking office. During the general election, the Liberal Democratic party lost fifteen seats in the House of Representatives; however still won the majority of seats.
Personal life
Kishida is married to Yuko Kishida and has two children.
References
Other websites
Official Website
MOFA Official Website (in English) Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
1957 births
Living people
Prime Ministers of Japan
Current national leaders
People from Hiroshima