Fumio Kishida, the newly elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party, has cultivated the ability to listen carefully to the people around him. This article examines the background and personal character of Kishida, a former chairperson of the LDP Policy Research Council who is set to take the reins of the nation.
Kishida was born in July 1957 as the oldest son of Fumitake Kishida, a bureaucrat in the then International Trade and Industry Ministry. He lived in New York for the first three years of elementary school after his father was transferred there.
-- Emphasis on teamwork
It was Kishida's time in New York that inspired him to pursue a career in politics. He experienced racial discrimination when a white girl refused to hold his hand, which made him think, "I want to change this world, in which unreasonable things are accepted."
After returning to Japan, he went to a public elementary school and junior high school in Tokyo. Kishida then entered Kaisei Senior High School, a high-ranking private school.
He joined the school's baseball club as a beginner, and practiced tenaciously despite his thin body. He prioritizes teamwork still today as a politician, based on his experiences on the school team.
After graduating from the Law Department of Waseda University, Kishida joined the former Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan. He decided to become a politician while assisting with the election campaign of his father Fumitake, who became a member of the House of Representatives.
Kishida took over his father's electoral base after Fumitake's death and was elected to the lower house for the first time in 1993.
A member of a group of young lawmakers who pledged to carry out reforms, he started to gain prominence from around 2005 as one of the "seven samurai of the LDP," along with former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and others who won their first lower house seat at the same time as Kishida.
In 2007, Kishida took his first ministerial post in the first Abe Cabinet as state minister in charge of issues related to Okinawa Prefecture and the northern territories.
-- Achievements as foreign minister
His appointment as foreign minister in the second Abe Cabinet quickly propelled Kishida to the status of a possible candidate for prime minister.
One of his biggest achievements as foreign minister was arranging then U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima in May 2016. Kishida began planning Obama's visit a year in advance, as it was unusual for a U.S. president to travel to the atomic-bombed city and Washington was expected to oppose the trip.
After learning that the United States had expressed reluctance about a planned visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which depicts the reality of the atomic bombing, Kishida said: "His visit absolutely must happen. If he comes to Hiroshima, a visit to the memorial museum is essential." He then went on to negotiate with then U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy.
Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima proved to be a success, welcomed by the local people. "It's unbelievable that the U.S. president would offer flowers [to atomic bomb victims] in Hiroshima," a local resident said.
It was one of the best moments for a politician whose constituency includes Hiroshima and who has made the reduction of nuclear weapons his lifework.
Even as Kishida demonstrated his skills as foreign minister, including the conclusion of the Japan-South Korea agreement on the issue of so-called comfort women, he remained humble and cautious in his remarks.
Some have criticized Kishida as uninteresting, but he had resolved never to make careless comments as foreign minister. "A word from a foreign minister can immediately affect international relations," he said.
"He never takes credit for anything. He's different from politicians who are always touting 'me, me, me,'" a senior official of the Foreign Ministry said.
-- Always a gentleman
Kishida is one of the political world's strongest drinkers. He is known to have competed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov over the amount of sake they consumed.
"No matter how much he drinks, he remains a gentleman. I was impressed by the way he drank sake," an acquaintance of Kishida said. He knows how Kishida behaves when he drinks, as he worked with Kishida at a junior chamber of commerce in Hiroshima in the 1990s.
For more than 25 years, Kishida has been a frequent customer of the okonomiyaki restaurant Yubu in the city, where he enjoys the local flavors. His regular order is a Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki pancake with squid tempura and a half portion of yakisoba noodles inside, topped with plenty of green onions.
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