Japan PM Kishida to unveil plans to revive economy after pandemic

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a press conference at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 14, 2021. Eugene Hoshiko / Pool on REUTERS

TOKYO, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will outline plans on Wednesday to revitalize a pandemic-stricken economy after his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a strong majority in last month’s elections.

A post-election upswing for the quiet-speaking former banker from the nuclear memorial city of Hiroshima has raised government support rates to 53% in an opinion poll this week by public broadcaster NHK. Two weeks ago support was 46%.

Kishida, who will set out his plans at a press conference scheduled for 9:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), has stressed that his immediate priority is to revive growth with later financial reform.

Solid valuations, planned economic stimulus of more than 30 trillion yen (264.7 billion just a year on the job.

On Wednesday, Kishida was re-elected by parliament, in whose powerful lower house the LDP won 261 of 465 seats. The vote was a formality given the dominance of the party and its junior coalition partner in parliament.

In Japan, a prime minister is elected by members of parliament, not by national elections.

Kishida has reappointed all but one of the ministers from the previous roster, announced last month following his first election by parliament following his victory in the LDP chief race sparked by Suga’s resignation in September.

One change concerned the position of foreign minister, where Kishida Toshimitsu Motegi, who moved to an important party post, replaced Yoshimasa Hayashi with another LDP heavyweight former minister of education.

In addition, Kishida, who has promised to take a firm stand for democracy in the Chinese-ruled city of Hong Kong and the human rights of the Uyghur Muslim minority, appointed former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani as his special adviser on international human rights issues.

Nakatani has proposed a Japanese version of the US Magnitsky Act, a US law that allows foreign human rights abusers to be punished with freezing of US assets and travel bans to the United States. Continue reading

Most of Kishida ministers have no previous cabinet experience, in line with his promise to give new people a chance, but the majority of the important jobs went to allies of two party bigwigs: Conservative former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or former Finance Minister Taro Aso.

In a further step that strengthened the position of the Conservatives in the LDP after Abe’s record-long tenure in the top position, the ex-prime minister agreed on Wednesday to take over the chairmanship of the party’s largest faction, domestic media said.

With the elections out of the way, Kishida sets an ambitious agenda to pass economic incentives on November 19 and an additional budget to fund spending through the end of this month.

One pillar of the planned stimulus is a cash payout of 100,000 yen and vouchers for children under the age of 18, for which the coalition agreed on Wednesday an annual income limit of 9.6 million yen.

On Tuesday, Kishida pledged to get the economy back on track by boosting private sector investment and disposable income to achieve a “virtuous cycle” of economic growth and wealth distribution.

He said he wanted to revise the medical system and offer booster vaccinations to better protect himself against the next wave of COVID-19 infections.

($ 1 = 113,3500 yen)

Reporting by Antoni Slodkowski, Kantaro Komiya, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Arrangement by Michael Perry

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-pm-kishida-outline-policy-plans-after-strong-election-win-2021-11-10/