Japan's New Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Elected on 'South Korea-Japan Comfort Women Agreement'... Inauguration on Next Month 4 (Comprehensive)

Classified as 'Bidulgipa' but Improving Korea-Japan Relations Remains Difficult

▲Fumio Kishida elected as the president of the Liberal Democratic Party [Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Fumio Kishida (64), former Policy Research Council Chairman and former Foreign Minister of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who played a key role in the Korea-Japan comfort women agreement, will take office as Japan's Prime Minister on the 4th of next month.

According to NHK, Kyodo News, and others on the 29th, Japan's ruling LDP held the next party president election at a hotel in Tokyo from 1 p.m., where Kishida was elected as the 27th party president.

In the runoff vote, Kishida secured 257 votes out of 429, more than half, defeating Taro Kono, Minister in charge of Administrative Reform, who received 170 votes, by a margin of 87 votes to become party president.

In the first round of voting, Kishida received 146 votes from Diet members and 110 votes from party members and supporters, totaling 256 votes, ranking first. Taro Kono, who was considered a strong frontrunner with the highest public opinion poll ratings, received 169 votes from party members, ranking first in that category, but only 86 votes from Diet members, totaling 255 votes and placing second.

Since no candidate received a majority (382 votes) in the first round, the top two candidates, Kishida and Kono, proceeded to a runoff vote to decide the winner.

Subsequently, in the runoff vote between the top two candidates, Kishida's victory was confirmed.

In the first round, the weight of votes from Diet members and party members/supporters was equal at 382 votes each, but in the runoff vote, the total was 429 votes, consisting of 382 votes from Diet members and one vote each from 47 nationwide branches, increasing the weight of Diet members' votes over party members, thus making factional influence more significant.

Kishida secured 146 votes from Diet members in the first round, 60 more than Kono, signaling his victory.

His election was attributed to securing support from major LDP factions based on a sense of stability.

There also appeared to be an internal party check against Kono.

Kono expanded his support mainly among younger party members, but due to his history of advocating for nuclear phase-out and his cooperation with Shigeru Ishiba, a former Secretary-General and Abe's rival, he failed to gain the support of the LDP's major veteran factions.

▲Fumio Kishida [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Amid the Suga administration's poor performance and a sharp drop in cabinet approval ratings, public opinion consistently pointed to Kono as the most suitable candidate for the next prime minister. However, due to the unique structure of the party president election, voters' voices were not fully reflected.

Kishida pledged a reform plan to limit the consecutive term of LDP executives, excluding the party president, to three years.

Accordingly, it is expected that there will be some changes in the LDP's power dynamics, such as the replacement of Toshihiro Nikai, the LDP Secretary-General who has held his position for over five years and wielded significant influence.

Kishida is classified as a moderate within the LDP, which is strongly conservative and right-wing, and advocates for diplomatic policies utilizing soft power.

He served as Foreign Minister for about four years and eight months during the Abe administration, which took a hardline stance on historical issues, and was a party to the 2015 Korea-Japan Foreign Ministers' Agreement on the issue of comfort women.

Considering this background, it is expected that Kishida will continue the Abe and Suga administrations' policy line, which insisted that "South Korea must keep its promises" regarding the comfort women issue.

Kishida has also emphasized the importance of security cooperation with South Korea, and attention is focused on whether he will actively engage in dialogue to resolve conflict issues.

However, since his immediate priorities are responding to COVID-19 and stabilizing the administration through the House of Representatives election in November and the House of Councillors election next summer, significant changes in Korea-Japan relations are not expected in the short term.

Meanwhile, Kishida is a third-generation hereditary politician, following his grandfather Masaki Kishida (1895?1961), a former House of Representatives member, and his father Fumitake Kishida (1926?1992), also a former House of Representatives member. He is the chairman of the Kochikai faction of the LDP, which has 46 Diet members.

He once concurrently served as Defense Minister in the Abe administration and also served as chairman of the LDP Policy Research Council.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.