Fumio Kishida wins race to become Japan's next PM

Elite conservative power brokers defeated popular sentiment yesterday as Japan's former foreign minister Fumio Kishida was elected by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as its choice for the next prime minister.

The 64-year-old will be sworn in next Monday when the Diet convenes to choose Mr Yoshihide Suga's successor, in a vote that is merely procedural given the LDP coalition's majority in both chambers of Parliament.

Mr Kishida's most immediate task will be to unite a divided party with an eye on a general election that must be held by November, as four-year Lower House lawmaker terms are due to expire on Oct 21.

"Let us all face the Lower House and (next year's) Upper House elections as one," Mr Kishida said in his acceptance speech.

"We must put together a stimulus package of tens of trillions of yen by the end of the year, and beyond that, important issues are piling up for our nation - realising a new capitalism and a free and open Indo-Pacific, as well as dealing with the low birth rate."

A moderate party stalwart who was a right-hand man to former prime minister Shinzo Abe, Mr Kishida is seen within the LDP's conservative ranks as a safe pair of hands, but perceived by the public as boring.

Instead, the public's favourite for the next prime minister is administrative reform and vaccination minister Taro Kono, 58, who lost to Mr Kishida over two rounds of voting.

Mr Kono is an English-speaking media darling whose maverick reformist credentials do not sit easy with the conservative base, even as the public regards him highly for his ability to bash through bureaucratic red tape and get things done.

Both men were neck and neck in the first round, when two former internal affairs ministers were also in the fray. Of the 762 votes cast, Mr Kishida won 256 votes, narrowly edging out Mr Kono by one vote. Ms Sanae Takaichi, 60, a staunch conservative backed by Mr Abe, scored 188 votes while Ms Seiko Noda, 61, whose platform is children-and women-centric, earned 63 votes.

The top two finishers faced off in a run-off poll where Mr Kishida scored 257 votes and Mr Kono, 170 votes, of the 427 ballots cast.

A breakdown of the party rank-and-file votes, however, clearly showed Mr Kono as the choice for 39 out of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Mr Kishida, in his victory press conference, alluded to his weaknesses and vowed to listen to the voices of the people and win them over step by step. He also said he will continue Suga-era policies on climate change and digital transformation.

Mr Kono said in his concession remarks that he lost due to "my own lack of ability", apologising to his supporters and vowing to support Mr Kishida with all his might.

Dr Toru Yoshida of Doshisha University in Kyoto told The Straits Times: "LDP lawmakers seem to have been quite relaxed to see that the party's support has received a boost with Suga's resignation."

He added: "They might have felt more secure with Kishida, who opts for a more harmonised style of leadership, than with Kono, in their choice to keep the status quo."

Mr Kishida, whose grandfather and father were Lower House politicians, is a ninth-term lawmaker who was first elected in his ancestral Hiroshima prefecture in 1993. He has three sons with his wife Yuko. Eldest son Shotaro, 30, is following in his footsteps and now works as his secretary.