Japan Elections: PM Kishida Declares Victory
3 Min Read
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has controlled Japanese politics for decades but was condemned for its handling of the pandemic.
-
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (Pool photo by Du Xiaoyi)
Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida declared victory on Monday after his ruling coalition won a large majority in national elections.
Kishida promised to boost the world's third-largest economy with a new pandemic spending package this month, which he said he would draft.
A day before heading to Glasgow for the COP26 summit, he also stated that Japan would "take a leading role in working towards zero emissions in Asia."
Local media reported that the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner Komeito won 293 of the 465 seats in parliament's lower house while the official result was still being finalized.
"It was a very tough election, but the people's will -- that they want us to create this country's future under the stable LDP-Komeito government and the Kishida administration -- was shown," the prime minister said.
Previously, the coalition held 305 seats in parliament, while the LDP held 276 on its own.
Kishida took office a month ago, after his predecessor Yoshihide Suga resigned after only a year in office, partly due to public dissatisfaction with his handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
Who is Fumio Kishida?
Fumio Kishida served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for five years (2012-2017).
He is an ardent activist for global nuclear disarmament, and he notably contributed to Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima in 2016, the first visit by a US president - while in office - to the city that an American A-bomb had reduced to rubble in 1945.
On the economic front, the former banker promised a new fiscal stimulus plan to speed up recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, demonstrating his desire to reduce social inequalities.
Kishida’s economic policy seems focused on the need to distribute more wealth to households. His approach comes in stark contrast to former PM Shinzo Abe’s economic policies, dubbed “Abenomics,” which focused on boosting corporate profits with the hope of its benefits trickling down on workers and wage-earners - a neoliberal premise at odds with reality.
Kishida appears more cautious on social issues, stating that he "has not reached the point of accepting same-sex marriage," which is not legal in Japan.
Kishida lived several years of his childhood with his family in New York and says he was a victim of racism at school - an experience he describes as difficult, yet one that gave him a penchant for justice and fairness.
