Japan’s Kishida prepares November election, picks Noda for cabinet

TOKYO — Japan’s next prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is expected to dissolve the lower house of parliament around Oct. 14, setting the country on the path to its first general election in four years in November.

Kishida, who won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership race last week, is on the verge of being elected Japan’s 100th prime minister in a parliament vote set for Monday.

When he unveils his cabinet that day, it is expected to include one of his rivals for the LDP presidency, Seiko Noda.

Kishida told reporters Saturday he intended to have his cabinet picks decided “in substance” by the end of Sunday.

Noda, a former internal affairs minister, was one of two women in the running to become party leader and, in turn, the country’s first female prime minister.

Candidates for the presidential election of the LDP, left to right, Taro Kono, Fumio Kishida, Sanae Takaichi and Seiko Noda, pose in Tokyo on Sept. 18.

  © Kyodo

Noda would be the only one of Kishida’s three rivals to take a cabinet seat. She finished last of the four contenders in terms of overall votes.

His closest competitor Taro Kono, who led in public opinion polls but was defeated in a runoff vote, has been relegated the post of LDP communications chief after having served as the previous cabinet’s point main for administrative reform and coronavirus vaccination.

Sanae Takaichi, a hawkish former internal affairs whom ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe backed and who earned more votes from LDP lawmakers than Kono, was named party policy chief. While the post is one of the most prominent in the LDP, Kishida avoided giving her a major cabinet position.

The election of the next prime minister will take place in an extraordinary session of parliament. Kishida is expected to dissolve the lower house around the end of the that session, setting in motion a general election on Nov. 7 or Nov. 14. 

Kishida will form his new government just days after Japan emerged from a coronavirus state of emergency, which had dampened economic activity in Tokyo and other big population centers for the much of the past six months.

His cabinet will face the challenge of rekindling economic growth amid headwinds like weak consumer spending and a chip shortage hobbling automakers.

The blanks in the cabinet slate have started to be filled in, with Toshimitsu Motegi to stay on as foreign minister. Long-serving Taro Aso will cede the post of finance minister to Shunichi Suzuki, a member of Aso’s faction in the LDP.

On Saturday, Kishida met with his pick for chief cabinet secretary, the government’s top spokesperson and key link between the prime minister’s office and the bureaucracy. Hirokazu Matsuno hails from the LDP’s powerful Hosoda faction.