Tokyo — Japan’s parliament formally elected Shigeru Ishiba, head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as the country’s new prime minister on Tuesday.
Ishiba was chosen as party leader on Friday to replace Fumio Kishida, who resigned earlier in the day along with his cabinet to clear the way.
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Ishiba was expected to announce his new cabinet later on Tuesday.
Kishida took power in 2021 but is leaving so his party can get a new leader after his government was dogged by scandals. Ishiba plans to call parliamentary elections for October 27.
“I believe it is important that the new government gets the public’s verdict as soon as possible,” Ishiba said on Monday as he announced his plan to call early elections. Opposition parties criticized Ishiba for allowing only a short period in which his policies could be examined and debated in parliament before national elections.
Kishida left his office after a brief farewell ceremony, during which he was presented with a bouquet of red roses and cheered by his staff and former Cabinet members.
“As we face a critical moment inside and outside the country, I fervently hope that the key policies that will shape Japan’s future will be vigorously pursued by the new Cabinet,” Kishida said in a statement, citing the need to strengthen security amid a widening global divide. , like Russian war in Ukrainewhile addressing declining birth rates and population, as well as economic and political reforms at home.
Ishiba previously announced his party’s leaders before appointing his cabinet.
The majority of his Cabinet ministers, like Ishiba, are expected to have no ties to factions led and controlled by party heavyweights, and none belong to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s powerful group, which has been linked with damaging scandals.
Ishiba’s lack of a stable power base could also mean his government is vulnerable and could “collapse quickly,” even as Ishiba hopes to build party unity as it prepares for upcoming elections, according to the liberal-leaning Asahi newspaper.
The move is also seen as a step toward revenge by Ishiba, who was largely pushed aside during most of Abe’s rule.
Ishiba has proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance and more discussion among regional partners over the use of the US nuclear deterrent. He also proposed a more equal security alliance between Japan and the US, including joint management of US bases in Japan and having Japan Self-Defense Force bases in the United States.
Ishiba laid out his views last week in an article for the Hudson Institute. “The absence of a collective self-defense system such as NATO in Asia means that wars are likely to break out because there is no obligation for mutual defense. Under these circumstances, the creation of an Asian version of NATO is essential to deter China from its Western allies,” he wrote.
Ishiba proposes combining existing security and diplomatic groupings such as the Quad and other bilateral and multilateral frameworks involving the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and the Philippines.
He also noted that Asia’s version of NATO could also consider sharing control of U.S. nuclear weapons in the region as a deterrent against growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia.
Ishiba emphasized on Friday that Japan must strengthen its security recent violations of Japanese airspace by Russian and Chinese warplaness and repeated missile launches by North Korea.
He pledged to continue Kishida’s economic policies, which aim to lift Japan out of deflation and achieve real wage increases, while tackling challenges such as Japan’s declining birth rate and population and resilience to natural disasters.
The LDP has had a virtually uninterrupted tenure over Japan since World War II. Party members may have seen Ishiba’s more centrist positions as crucial in pushing back challenges from the liberal-leaning opposition and winning voter support as the party reels from scandals that have dented Kishida’s popularity.
First elected to parliament in 1986, Ishiba has served as defense minister, agriculture minister and other key cabinet posts, and was secretary general of the LDP under Abe.
