Japan’s Prime Minister to Double as Top Diplomat

Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio will double as Japan’s foreign minister until the country’s cabinet reforms in a special session of parliament next week, Kyodo News reported Thursday.

Kishida chose to assume twin leadership roles Sunday after Japan’s incumbent foreign minister took over a key post in the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The LDP appointed then-Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi as its secretary-general in a general election October 31.

“The appointment of Motegi as secretary-general came after his predecessor Akira Amari resigned following his shock defeat in a single-seat district in Sunday’s House of Representatives election, an unprecedented humiliation for a sitting LDP secretary-general,” Kyodo News recalled on November 4. “Amari had been in the post for only a month.”

Under Japan’s constitution, the federal government’s executive branch, or Cabinet, “must resign en masse when the first session of the Diet is convened following a general election,” Kyodo News noted Thursday. Japan’s parliament is also known as the Diet.

“In a special session expected to be held on Wednesday [November 10], the Diet is set to choose Kishida as the prime minister and he will then relaunch the Cabinet,” according to the Japanese news agency.

The LDP confirmed Motegi as its secretary-general on November 3. The post is considered a “powerful role that includes shaping policy,” according to Reuters. Motegi will now lead the conservative LDP, second in ranking only to its president, Kishida. Japan’s Prime Minister responded to news of Motegi’s confirmation as the LDP’s “number two” on Thursday.

“Until the new cabinet, I am thinking of working as foreign minister as well,” Kishida told reporters.

Kishida previously served as Japan’s foreign minister from 2012 to 2017 under former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. The extended tenure made Kishida the longest-serving foreign minister in Japanese history. Kishida also occupied the post of Japan’s Acting Minister of Defense in 2017.

Japan’s parliament will convene a special session on November 10 to confirm Kishida as Japanese prime minister. Kishida has served in the post for just one month since replacing former Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide on October 4. Suga chose not to seek reelection to the LDP presidency, effectively signaling his resignation as prime minister. Japan’s prime minister traditionally also leads the country’s ruling party simultaneously. Shortly after his confirmation, Kishida is expected to name a new cabinet next Wednesday that will likely remain largely unchanged from its current setup except for the office of foreign minister.