He previously served as Deputy Foreign Minister of the country.
Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono will leave his post during the upcoming reshuffles in the government of the new Prime Minister, who will confirm the new General Secretary of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, on 16 September. This was announced by Kyodo on Tuesday.
The report notes that Kono, who previously headed the country’s foreign ministry, will be transferred from the post of Minister of Defence to the post of Minister of Administrative Affairs and Communications. The new Minister of Defence, in turn, will be Nobuo Kishi, Shinzo Abe’s younger brother, who previously held the post of Deputy Foreign Minister.
Kyodo previously reported that Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Finance Minister Taro Aso, State Lands, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Kazuyoshi Aqaba and Olympic and Paralympic Games Minister Seiko Hashimoto will retain their positions in the new Sugi government.
At the Congress of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan in Tokyo on Monday, Yoshihide Suga was elected as the new Chairman of the Party by an absolute majority vote. Suga will now be confirmed as the new Prime Minister at a meeting of both houses of parliament on 16 September. According to the party statutes, the next head of the LDP will hold this position until the end of September 2021, when the term of the resigned Abe expires. This will be followed by a new election of chairman for a standard three-year term.
Shinzo Abe said on 28 August that he wanted to resign because of his deteriorating health condition. His ulcer colitis has worsened and he also had to resign as Prime Minister in 2007. Abe, however, stressed that he was not going to appoint an interim prime minister, but was planning to stay in office until a replacement was selected.