Fumio Kishida (born 29 July 1957) was Prime Minister of Japan from 4 October 2021 to 1 October 2024, succeeding Yoshihide Suga and preceding Shigeru Ishiba.
Biography[]
Fumio Kishida was born in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan on 29 July 1957, a relative of Yoichi Miyazawa and Kiichi Miyazawa, and his family returned to their hometown of Hiroshima every summer; Kishida lost several family members to the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. Kishida graduated from Waseda University in 1982 and worked for the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 as an LDP member. He affiliated himself with Makoto Koga's faction of the LDP and also joined the ultranationalist Nippon Kaigi secret society, and he rose in the ranks under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, serving as Foreign Minister from 2012 to 2017. In 2021, he became President of the LDP after Yoshihide Suga's decision not to run for re-election, and he succeeded Suga both as President of the LDP and as Prime Minister of Japan on 4 October 2021. Kishida was a foreign policy dove and lukewarm about remilitarizing Japan, seeking to strengthen Japan's relations with the United States and Taiwan, reduce economic disparities caused by neoliberalism, and strengthen Japan's defenses in the case of a clash between authoritarianism and democracy in the region. After several by-elections defeats in early 2024, he decided to step down as Prime Minister and LDP leader.