Meet Japan’s latest unloved leader

Japan will soon have yet another new prime minster: Fumio Kishida. He will be the country’s third leader in as many years, and news of his appointment has been met with neither enthusiasm nor much concern – mainly because nobody really knows who he is, or what to expect from him.

Kishida, the 64-year old former foreign secretary, was the most experienced of the four short-listed candidates. He has been a minister in various posts for the last fifteen years without anyone particularly noticing his existence.

Kishida is a mild-mannered, self-effacing, former banker. He is a hereditary politician with three generations of his family having served in high office, and has clearly had his eyes on the top job for a while. He might have got there sooner but lost out in his bid to replace Shinzo Abe in 2020. He blotted his copybook during the early days of the pandemic when his suggestion of a 300,000 yen (£2,000) stimulus payment to all households in Japan was considered wildly extravagant and saw important backers edge away.

So what does he stand for? Kishida supposedly has left-wing tendencies – but by Japanese standard that still puts him to the right of most mainstream UK politicians.