Fumio Kishida

Fumio Kishida (岸田 文雄) is a Japanese politician who has served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2021.

Kishida was born to a political family in Shibuya, Tokyo, on 29 July 1957.

His father, Fumitake Kishida, was a government official in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and director of The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency.

Since the Kishida family was from Hiroshima, the family returned there every summer.

Many members of the Kishida family had died in the atomic bombing and Fumio grew up hearing stories from the atomic bomb survivors.

Both his father Fumitake and grandfather Masaki Kishida were former politicians who were members of the House of Representatives.

Former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoichi Miyazawa is his cousin and former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa is a distant relative.

He went to P.S. 013 Clement C. Moore elementary school in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York, because his father was posted to a job in the U.S. at the time.

He also attended Kōjimachi Elementary School and Kōjimachi Junior High School.

Kishida graduated from Kaisei Academy, where he played on the baseball team.

Following several rejections from the University of Tokyo, Kishida studied law at Waseda University and graduated in 1982.

At Waseda, he was friends with future politician Takeshi Iwaya.

After beginning his career in finance, Kishida entered politics and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 as a member of the LDP.

After working at now-defunct Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan and then as a secretary to a member of the House of Representatives, Kishida was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1993 general election, representing the Hiroshima 1st district.

Kishida was appointed to various posts in the cabinets of prime ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda from 2007 to 2008, and was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2012 after Abe regained the premiership following the 2012 general election, serving for five years and becoming the longest-serving Foreign Affairs Minister in Japanese history.

Kishida served as Minister of Okinawa Affairs from 2007 to 2008, firstly in the Abe Cabinet and later in the Fukuda cabinet.

He was appointed state minister in charge of consumer affairs and food safety in the cabinet of then prime minister Yasuo Fukuda in 2008.

Kishida was also state minister in charge of science and technology in the Fukuda cabinet.

A member of the House of Representatives, he previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2017 and as acting Minister of Defense in 2017.

Kishida also assumed leadership of the LDP's more moderate Kōchikai faction in 2012 following the retirement of faction leader Makoto Koga, a position he held until his resignation in 2023.

He was close to Makoto Koga, leader of the Kōchikai faction, one of the oldest inside the LDP, and assumed control of it in October 2012 after Makoto Koga announced his retirement from politics.

Following the LDP's victory in the 2012 general election, Kishida was named foreign minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on 26 December 2012.

He became the longest-serving foreign minister in postwar history, surpassing Abe's father Shintaro Abe.

He helped to arrange U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima in May 2016, and gained attention in 2017 when he appeared alongside comedian Piko Taro to promote a United Nations program.

He was not in favor of the appointment of Toshihiro Nikai as LDP secretary-general by Abe in 2016 against the wishes of Kishida's own faction, which was seen as an attempt at blocking generational change inside the LDP.

From 2017 to 2020, he also chaired the LDP Policy Research Council.

Born into a political family, Kishida spent part of his childhood in the United States, where he attended elementary school in New York City.

Kishida resigned from the Abe cabinet in 2017 in order to head the LDP's Policy Research Council.

In 2017, Kishida left the Cabinet to take over the chairmanship of the LDP Policy Research Council, a position traditionally seen as a stepping stone to leadership of the party.

He sought this position in order to improve his chances to succeed Abe, as the foreign minister post had relatively little influence within the party.

Kishida considered running in the 2018 LDP presidential election, but he was persuaded by Abe not to run, with a suggestion that Abe would later support Kishida as his successor.

Long considered a potential future prime minister, Kishida ran in the 2020 LDP leadership election, but lost to Yoshihide Suga.

He ran again for the party leadership in 2021, this time winning in a second round run-off against opponent Taro Kono.

Kishida was confirmed as Prime Minister by the National Diet four days later on 4 October 2021.

He led the LDP to victory in the 2021 general election later that same month, albeit at a slightly reduced majority.

Kishida has been described as a moderate conservative and has stated that his premiership will focus on a "new model of capitalism", by seeking to implement redistributive policies to expand the middle class.

On foreign policy he has continued strengthening the Quad Security Dialogue in pursuit of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy, taken steps to repair ties with South Korea and in 2022 instructed the cabinet to increase Japan's military budget by 65% by 2027.

Kishida is seen by many as a controversial figure in Japanese politics.

His premiership has seen controversy over the LDP's affiliation with the Unification Church new religious movement following the Assassination of Shinzo Abe in 2022, an ongoing slush fund scandal involving the conservative Seiwakai and Shisuikai factions, and other issues which has led to Kishida becoming the most unpopular and controversial Prime Minister since the LDP's return to power in 2012.

By mid-2020, several senior LDP lawmakers had shifted their support from Kishida to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.