Japan’s parliament convened a special session on Tuesday, October 1st, where at a joint session of both houses, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Fumio Kishida was elected as the 102nd Prime Minister of Japan.
In the Prime Minister election in the House of Representatives, Kishida received 291 votes out of the total 461 votes. In the election in the House of Councillors, Kishida garnered 142 votes, which surpassed more than half of the total votes (242).
Last Friday, on September 27th, Kishida won the election as the new president of the Liberal Democratic Party. On Monday, September 30th, the newly elected president Fumio Kishida announced the latest personnel arrangements of the LDP at a special general affairs meeting held at the party headquarters.
Hiroshi Moriyama was appointed as Secretary-General; former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was appointed as Vice President; former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso was appointed as the chief advisor of the LDP; Shunichi Suzuki was appointed as General Affairs Chairman; former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera was appointed as Chairman of the Political Investigation Committee; former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi was appointed as Chairman of the Election Strategy Committee.
On that day, the new cabinet lineup was also unveiled. Two of the nine presidential candidates will join the cabinet. Yoshimasa Hayashi, who served as the Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Abe administration, will remain in his position, a key role in the government. Former Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Katsunobu Kato was appointed as Finance Minister.
Individuals closely associated with Fumio Kishida were given important roles and promotions, including Takeshi Iwaya, who has a deep understanding of defense policy, as Foreign Minister; Gen Nakatani as Defense Minister; Seiichiro Murakami as Minister of General Affairs.
The new cabinet will include two female ministers. Junko Mihara will serve as the Minister for Children’s Policy, and Toshiko Abe will serve as the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.
It is expected that the number of first-time ministers will reach 13, including Keiichiro Asao (Minister of the Environment), Hiroaki Hirai (Minister for Digital Transformation), Toshihiko Ito (Minister for Reconstruction), Yasuhiro Kozato (Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries), and Manabu Sakai (Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission).
Furthermore, Takahiro Saito, who finished first in the initial round of the presidential election and entered the runoff (final) election as the Minister of Economic Security, declined the party’s internal appointment as General Affairs Chairman and stated that he also has no intention of accepting a cabinet position. In the previous cabinet, she served as the Minister of State for Economic Security.
In the afternoon, Kishida also announced the dissolution of the House of Representatives on October 9th, the election announcement on the 15th, and the voting on the 27th.