By Antoni Slodkowski
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will outline his plans on Wednesday to revive the country’s economy hit by the pandemic following a convincing election win last month, in which his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a strong majority.
The soft-spoken former banker from Hiroshima is enjoying a post-election boost, with the government’s support ratings rising to 53% in this week’s opinion poll by public broadcaster NHK, compared to 46% two weeks ago.
Solid ratings, a planned economic stimulus, coupled with high vaccination rates and few infections could help Kishida solidify his power base in the party and avoid the fate of his predecessor Yoshihide Suga who lasted only a year in the job.
On Wednesday, Kishida is set to be re-elected by the parliament in whose powerful lower chamber the LDP won 261 out of 465 seats. The vote is a formality given the party’s and its junior coalition partner Komeito’s dominance in the parliament.
Kishida is also set to reappoint all but one of the ministers from the previous line up, announced last month after he was first elected by the parliament following his victory in the LDP chief race triggered by Suga’s resignation in September.
One change is in the position of the foreign minister, where Kishida is expected to replace Toshimitsu Motegi, who has moved to a key party post, with another LDP heavyweight former Education Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Most of Kishida’s ministers have no prior cabinet experience, in line with his pledge to give a chance to new people, but the majority of important jobs have gone to allies of two party grandees: conservative former premier Shinzo Abe, or ex-finance minister Taro Aso.
In a further move bolstering the position of conservatives in the LDP following Abe’s record-long tenure in the top job, the ex-PM is expected to on Wednesday take over as the head of the party’s largest faction, domestic media said.
With elections out of the way, Kishida is setting an ambitious agenda to pass economic stimulus which could be worth more than 30 trillion yen ($264.7 billion) on Nov. 19, and an extra budget to fund the spending by the end of this month.
On Tuesday, Kishida vowed to put the economy on track by boosting private-sector investment and disposable income to achieve a “virtuous cycle” of economic growth and distribution of wealth.
Kishida stressed his immediate priority was reviving growth, while fiscal reform could wait until later.
He has said he wants to revamp Japan’s medical system and arrange the provision of booster shots so that the country is in better shape to meet the next wave of COVID-19 infections.
He is set to lay out these plans at a news conference in the evening Japan time.
($1 = 113.3500 yen)
(Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Michael Perry)
