Fumio Kishida is a Japanese politician serving as prime minister of Japan and president of the Liberal Democratic Party since 2021.
71 Facts About Fumio Kishida
2.
Fumio 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.
3.
Fumio Kishida resigned from the Abe cabinet in 2017 in order to head the LDP's Policy Research Council.
4.
Fumio Kishida assumed control of the LDP's Kochikai faction in 2012 following the retirement of faction boss Makoto Koga.
5.
Long considered a potential future prime minister, Fumio Kishida ran in the 2020 LDP leadership election, but lost to Yoshihide Suga.
6.
Fumio Kishida ran again for the party leadership in 2021, this time winning in a second round run-off against opponent Taro Kono.
7.
Fumio Kishida was confirmed as Prime Minister by the National Diet four days later on 4 October 2021 and led the LDP to victory in the 2021 general election later that same month.
8.
Fumio 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.
9.
Fumio Kishida's premiership has seen political scandals related to the LDP's links to the Unification Church which came to public attention after the assassination of Shinzo Abe in 2022.
10.
Fumio Kishida was born to a political family in Shibuya, Tokyo, on 29 July 1957.
11.
Fumio Kishida's father, Fumitake Kishida, was a government official in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and director of The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency.
12.
Since the Fumio Kishida family was from Hiroshima, the family returned there every summer.
13.
Many members of the Kishida family had died in the atomic bombing and Fumio grew up hearing stories from the atomic bomb survivors.
14.
Fumio Kishida attended Kojimachi Elementary School and Kojimachi Junior High School.
15.
Fumio Kishida graduated from Kaisei Academy, where he played on the baseball team.
16.
Fumio Kishida served as Minister of Okinawa Affairs from 2007 to 2008, firstly in the Abe Cabinet and later in the Fukuda cabinet.
17.
Fumio Kishida was appointed state minister in charge of consumer affairs and food safety in the cabinet of then prime minister Yasuo Fukuda in 2008.
18.
Fumio Kishida was state minister in charge of science and technology in the Fukuda cabinet.
19.
Fumio Kishida was close to Makoto Koga, leader of the Kochikai faction, one of the oldest inside the LDP, and assumed control of it in October 2012 after Makoto Koga announced his retirement from politics.
20.
Fumio Kishida became the longest-serving foreign minister in postwar history, surpassing Abe's father Shintaro Abe.
21.
Fumio Kishida helped to arrange US 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.
22.
Fumio Kishida 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.
23.
In 2017, Fumio 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.
24.
Fumio Kishida sought this position in order to improve his chances to succeed Abe, as the foreign minister post had relatively little influence within the party.
25.
Fumio 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 Fumio Kishida as his successor.
26.
Fumio Kishida ran in the 2020 LDP presidential election but lost out to Suga, who became prime minister; Fumio Kishida was not offered a position in the Suga cabinet, although his faction obtained two cabinet seats.
27.
On 29 September 2021, Fumio Kishida defeated Taro Kono in a runoff vote to become the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and replaced outgoing party leader Yoshihide Suga.
28.
Fumio Kishida received a total of 257 votes, from 249 parliament members and eight rank-and-file members, to become Japan's next prime minister.
29.
The First Fumio Kishida Cabinet took office on 4 October 2021 and consisted of 21 members, including 13 who joined the Cabinet for the first time while including 2 veterans, Toshimitsu Motegi and Nobuo Kishi, who retained their respective posts from the previous cabinet under Suga; however, on the same day, Fumio Kishida announced he would call a general election for 31 October 2021.
30.
Fumio Kishida gave his first speech as prime minister on 8 October 2021, vowing to fight and end the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan as well as announcing measures to counter the perceived threats by China and North Korea.
31.
Fumio Kishida formed the Second Kishida Cabinet by replacing Toshimitsu Motegi with Yoshimasa Hayashi as the Foreign Minister; Motegi became the party's Secretary-General.
32.
Fumio Kishida has visited Quad nations such as India and Australia to ensure the status quo in the region remains unchanged.
33.
On 24 February 2022, following the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fumio Kishida joined other leaders of the G7 nations in imposing economic sanctions on Russia.
34.
Fumio Kishida's proposed sanctions were much harsher than the largely symbolic sanctions imposed by the government of Shinzo Abe on Russia following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea.
35.
In December 2022 the Fumio Kishida government announced a $320bn increase in military spending, due in part to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
36.
On January 14,2023, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for Fumio Kishida to commit "seppuku" after he and Joe Biden warned Russia against using a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.
37.
Fumio Kishida invited President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine to a virtual meeting of G7 leaders, which was held on 24 February 2023, the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
38.
Fumio Kishida was the last G7 leader to visit Kyiv during the invasion; pressure grew for him to do so following Biden's visit in February 2023.
39.
On 21 March 2023, Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine and met President Zelenskyy.
40.
Fumio Kishida visited Bucha in Ukraine's Kyiv Oblast, the site of a civilian massacre that was perpetrated by Russia.
41.
Fumio Kishida was praised for the visit, and said he was 'outraged by the cruelty.
42.
In November 2022, Fumio Kishida instructed his government to increase military spending to 2 percent of Japan's GDP, up from 1 percent previously, by 2027.
43.
Fumio Kishida first met with President Emanuel Macron of France on 9 January 2023.
44.
On 11 January 2023, Fumio Kishida met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, where the two signed a joint defence pact.
45.
On 16 March 2023 Fumio Kishida held a summit with Yoon in Japan to settle war time labor disputes, among other issues.
46.
Fumio Kishida was criticized by some in South Korea for not directly apologizing during the meeting.
47.
Fumio Kishida has attempted to deepen ties between Japan and African nations, while promoting peace and stability in the region.
48.
Later on 30 April 2023, Fumio Kishida began an African tour and visited the League of Arab States based in Egypt, and met with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi; Fumio Kishida offered a yen loan to fund a metro line project in Cairo.
49.
Fumio Kishida met with Kenyan President William Ruto, who agreed to deepen cooperation and to bolster economic and energy ties.
50.
Fumio Kishida announced that Japan would continue to give assistance for infrastructure in Kenya.
51.
Ruto and Fumio Kishida signed an agreement allowing Kenyans to access jobs in Japan, bolstering economic relations.
52.
Fumio Kishida later blamed insufficient police protection for allowing the murder to occur.
53.
The device exploded after a short delay during which Fumio Kishida was evacuated from the scene unharmed.
54.
The incident took place as Fumio Kishida was talking with a candidate of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party just before his scheduled speech.
55.
Fumio Kishida immediately left by car after the incident and continued with his stump speech elsewhere in the city.
56.
Fumio Kishida stated at an event later in the day that "elections are a bedrock of democracy," adding that it was extremely unforgivable that such violence took place.
57.
In November 2022, Fumio Kishida instructed his government to increase military spending to 2 percent of Japan's GDP, up from 1 percent previously, by 2027.
58.
Fumio Kishida set child care as his government's priority for the year 2023.
59.
Fumio Kishida emphasized the potential consequences of declining birth rates in Japan, and stated that his administration would increase monetary child benefits given to parents.
60.
Fumio Kishida announced a plan to double the country's children-related budget by June 2023, and instructed government ministers in the administration to outline child care plans by the end of March 2023.
61.
In February 2023, Fumio Kishida fired an aide after the aide made homophobic comments in local media.
62.
On 13 March 2023, Fumio Kishida's government ended the request for citizens to wear face masks in public, a policy initiated to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan that was made 3 years earlier.
63.
Fumio Kishida is seen as dovish on foreign policy and lukewarm about revising Japan's pacifist constitution.
64.
In 2017, while serving as foreign minister, Fumio Kishida pressured China to push North Korea towards denuclearization.
65.
Fumio Kishida took a stronger stance than other contenders regarding China and North Korea, saying that Japan should strengthen its defenses, while at the same time recognizing that there is a clash between authoritarianism and democracy in the region, especially with regard to the status of Taiwan.
66.
Fumio Kishida has requested that the German government remove Friedensstatue, a variant of the Statue of Peace, in Berlin.
67.
Fumio Kishida is in favor of retaining nuclear power technology, which he says should be considered as a clean energy option, while calling for the establishment of a $90.7 billion university fund to further stimulate science and promotion of renewable energy.
68.
Fumio Kishida stated support for discussions toward allowing married Japanese couples to choose between unified single surnames or separate last names, while on the topic of same-sex marriage Fumio Kishida has stated he has not come to support it, saying instead that the public's opinion should be understood before the Diet decides.
69.
In 1988, Fumio Kishida married Yuko Fumio Kishida, the daughter of a Japanese real estate investor, in an arranged marriage.
70.
Fumio Kishida is a fan of the manga series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and has pledged to financially support the Japanese animation industry during his premiership.
71.
Fumio Kishida is a fan of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp baseball team.