Japan's 100th prime minister who wants a world without nuclear weapons: Who is Fumio Kishida?

On Japan’s economy, Kishida says the country needs a “new capitalism” to help narrow a wealth gap.

Born in 1957 to a family of politicians, Kishida graduated from Waseda University in 1982.

Kishida was first elected to the House of Representatives from the Hiroshima first district in the 1993 general election. Kishida, who served as the minister of state for Okinawa and the Northern Territories in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, served as Japan's Foreign Minister in Shinzo Abe's cabinet from 2012 to 2017.

After the previous Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to resign due to health problems in 2020, the question of who would be the new leader of the ruling party LDP and Japan came to the fore, and the eyes were turned to the leadership race in the LDP.

Suga, then Chief Cabinet Secretary, known as Abe's right-hand man and pledging to continue Abe's policies, won the election victory and was elected prime minister at the parliamentary session on September 16.

Suga, who was criticized for failing to manage the Covid-19 epidemic, announced at the beginning of September 2021 that the ruling LDP would not be a candidate for the leadership election, emphasizing that he wanted to focus on the fight against Covid-19 instead of the leadership election campaign.

Japan's former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the ruling party's leadership election in September 2021, making him the country's next prime minister.

The LDP has been in power in Japan since 1955, except for 1993-1994 and 2009-2012.

Kishida Fumio became the 100th prime minister of Japan by winning the votes of 311 of the 465-seat Shuugin deputies, dominated by his party LDP and his partner Komeito.

Kishida previously served as LDP policy chief and was foreign minister from 2012-17, during which he negotiated treaties with Russia and South Korea, where Japan's relations were often cold.

His fans describe Kishida as "a calm and honest person". At every opportunity, he expresses the necessity of "a leader must have the ability and willingness to listen to the voice of his people", which is the most important of his views, which he registered under the name of "Personality Vision".

Kishida, on the other hand, developed a pragmatic stance in the relations between Japan and South Korea, which did not get along at all, and proposed a solution in 2015 that would end the "comfort women" problem between them and South Korea. However, the issue of compensation and apology to these Korean women who were employed to serve Japanese soldiers in brothels in Japanese military camps in Korea during the Second World War still seems to be unresolved today. Japan accepts these women as prostitutes and argues that it is with Japanese soldiers in exchange for money and knowingly.

Fumiyo Kishida (July 29, 1957) has been the Prime Minister of Japan since October 4, 2021.