After his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a strong majority in last month’s election, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will outline plans on Wednesday to revive the country’s pandemic-hit economy.
In a recent opinion poll conducted by public broadcaster NHK, a post-election boost for the softly spoken former banker from Hiroshima, boosted government support to 53 percent. Support was at 46 percent just two weeks ago.
Kishida, who will lay out his plans at a press conference at 9:00 p.m. (12:00 GMT) on Wednesday, has stressed that reviving growth is his top priority, with fiscal reform coming secondary.
A planned economic stimulus worth more than 30 trillion yen ($264.7 billion), as well as high vaccination rates and few infections, could help Kishida to solidify his power base within the party and avoid the fate of his predecessor Yoshihide Suga, who was only in office for a year.
Kishida was re-elected by the parliament on Wednesday, with the 261 seats for LDP out of the 465 seats in the powerful lower chamber. Given the party’s and its junior coalition partner’s parliamentary dominance, the vote was merely a formality.
A prime minister in Japan is chosen by members of parliament rather than by a national election.
All but one of the ministers from the previous cabinet were reappointed by Kishida, who was first elected by the parliament last month after winning the LDP chief race sparked by Suga’s resignation in September.
Kishida replaced Toshimitsu Motegi, who has moved to a key party position, with another LDP member and former Education Minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in the position of the new foreign minister.
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