page_title: Fumio Kishida
section_title: Abe government
hierarchical_section_title: Fumio Kishida / Political career / Abe government
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson joins Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se for a photo prior to the start of their trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bonn, Germany, on February 16, 2017. This is his first official trip as Secretary of State. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
context_page_description: Fumio Kishida is a Japanese politician and the former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan from 2012 to 2017. He is a member of the House of Representatives and the Liberal Democratic Party. He served in Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet as minister of state for Okinawa and northern territories affairs, science and technology policy, quality-of-life policy, and regulatory reform. Within the LDP, Kishida is associated with more moderate viewpoints.
context_section_description: Following the LDP's victory in the 2012 general election, Kishida was named foreign minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on 26 December 2012. He became the longest-serving foreign minister in postwar history, unseating Abe's father Shintaro Abe. He helped to arrange U.S. President Barack Obama's historic visit to Hiroshima in 2015, and gained attention in 2017 when he appeared alongside comedian Piko Taro to promote a UN program.
  In 2017, Kishida left the Cabinet to take over the chairmanship of the LDP Policy Research Council, a position traditionally seen as a stepping stone to leadership of the party. He sought this position in order to improve his chances to succeed Abe, as the foreign minister post had relatively little influence within the party.
  Kishida considered running in the 2018 LDP presidential election, but was persuaded by Abe not to run, with a suggestion that Abe would later support Kishida as his successor. By mid-2020, however, several senior LDP lawmakers had shifted their support from Kishida to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso was quoted as saying "Kishida is for peacetime, not for troubled times." One factor in this shift was an unsuccessful proposal by Kishida to provide a 300,000 yen stimulus payment to households during the COVID-19 pandemic.
caption: Kishida with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, February 2017
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