By Samhita Rajesh
Former Foreign Minister, Fumio Kishida wins the parliamentary vote.
Fumio Kishida was elected as the 100th Prime Minister of Japan on Monday, October 4.
He won the majority of votes in both the houses of the Parliament. He will lead the Liberal Democratic Party in the upcoming general elections on October 31st.
Kishida replaces Yoshihide Suga, who resigned after a year in office due to a loss of support over the handling of the pandemic and his insistence on holding the Tokyo Olympics.
According to APNEWS, Kishida said, “COVID-19 measures are the urgent and top priority.” He intends to set up a crisis management unit and push through a large-scale recovery package to help those affected by the pandemic.
Kishida, 64, has grown up with his father and grandfather being members of the House of Representatives. Native of Hiroshima, he strongly opposes the use of nuclear weapons. He held the post of foreign minister between 2012 -2017.
With his party and its coalition partner holding a majority in both houses, Kishida won by a comfortably large margin against Yukio Edano, head of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
Kishida has replaced almost all of Suga’s cabinet members, except two. Most of the posts have gone to powerful members that voted for Kishida in the elections. His cabinet includes 3 women, one more than Suga’s cabinet.
An urgent task Kishida is focussing is to increase the popularity of the LPD after Suga’s failure to tackle matters such as the pandemic and other issues.
Pic Source: Wikipedia
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