Promising candidates for the 100th Prime Minister of Japan

Mr. Taro Kono - Minister of Administrative Reform of Japan. Photo: Nikkei

After Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihida Suga announced that he would not run for the presidency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) later this month, meaning his term as prime minister will soon end, the race to find a successor to Suga has begun to "heat up". The names of potential candidates have also received more attention, of which Mr. Taro Kono is considered the brightest face according to a poll conducted by Kyodo via telephone across Japan on September 4 and 5. He received 31.9% of the votes compared to 26.6% and 18.8% for former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida. Taro Kono's personality, worldview and reformist leanings make him different.

Famous politicians on social media

Taro Kono, 58, is a politician who is “familiar” to the public when he served as Foreign Minister and Defense Minister in the government of Prime Minister Shizo Abe from 2017 to 2019. After Prime Minister Suga took over, Mr. Taro Kono was given the position of Minister in charge of administrative reform. He has recently become famous as the “Vaccine Minister” due to being in charge of the largest vaccination campaign ever in the “Land of the Rising Sun”. This task has been initially successful and has become a bright spot in the context of the worsening Covid-19 epidemic in Japan. Since hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in July and early August, Japan has experienced its worst Covid-19 outbreak ever. More than 15,000 infections were recorded per day in the past week, nearly three times the number of cases recorded in previous waves. But the death rate has dropped, thanks in part to 48% of Japan’s population now being fully vaccinated, one of the highest rates in Asia. “I knew that setting a goal and charging forward was the way to get the job done,” Kono told the Nikkei newspaper of Japan’s vaccination campaign.

Mr. Taro Kono (left) is the person supported by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as his successor. Photo: Kyodo

But his success in the vaccination campaign is not the only factor that has won Kono much public support. In a fairly traditional society and politics like Japan, Kono has emerged as a modern, open-minded politician. He is one of the most famous officials on social media in Japan. Most young people know him and admire him - something that not many officials in Japan have. Kono's Japanese Twitter account has nearly 2.4 million followers and is growing rapidly during this time. Even his English account has nearly 50,000 subscribers. With his strong social media presence, Minister Kono can contact voters at any time, in any situation, and can even hold press conferences late at night. This is a big advantage for him in the upcoming race. “With the general election coming up, there will be a tendency to choose a candidate with strong public appeal,” said Atsuo Ito, a political analyst and former LDP official.

Different world view

With a calm and somewhat unpredictable appearance, Mr. Kono is described as an ambitious and relentless reformer. Although he has not rushed to confirm his candidacy for the LDP presidential election in late September, this is a position he has long pursued and is said to have prepared quite carefully. “Moving Japan Forward” is the title of Mr. Kono’s book published on August 27, in which he lays out his vision for reform from cutting administrative seals, challenging the rise of China to Japan’s role in the 21st century. A Japanese observer commented: “It is clear that he wants to signal his intention to pursue a leadership position. The content of the book suggests that he will run if given the opportunity.”

Mr. Taro Kono, when he was Japanese Foreign Minister, held talks with Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh at APEC 2017. Photo: Government Newspaper

It is no coincidence that Mr. Kono was assigned the important position of Minister of Administrative Reform in Prime Minister Suga's government. Japanese media commented that Mr. Suga seemed to recognize in Mr. Kono the role of a talented reformer who could overcome administrative obstacles, especially in the context of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, right after announcing his intention not to run for election, Prime Minister Suga expressed his support for Mr. Taro Kono as his successor. However, Mr. Kono also has unpredictable disadvantages.

Despite his social media fame, Taro Kono has long been portrayed as a loner in Japanese politics, despite being part of Japan’s most mainstream political party and coming from a “noble” family. His great-grandfather, Jihei Kono, was the chairman of the Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly, south of Tokyo. His grandfather, Ichiro Kono, was a member of the Diet, Japan’s national legislature, while his father, Yohei Kono, was president of the LDP and deputy prime minister of Japan from 1994 to 1995. However, Kono set out on his own path to political success without any interference from his family, which may be due in part to his American education. Kono left Japan to study in the United States in 1982 at the age of 19. He attended Georgetown University, majoring in comparative political studies. During his years at Georgetown, Kono worked for Democratic Senator Alan Cranston of California and Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. He also studied abroad at the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.

After returning to Japan, he worked for conglomerates before winning a seat in the Japanese parliament in 1996 in his home prefecture of Kanagawa. In 2015, he joined the Abe administration as minister for administrative reform. But more than his government experience, he has built a reputation for being outspoken and outspoken, willing to criticize publicly, and aiming to tackle the bureaucratic problems that still plague the government. But this has also gotten him into trouble. “Kono’s outspoken nature has not always been appreciated in Japanese politics, especially among the conservative LDP,” said Purnendra Jain, a Japanese politics expert at the University of Adelaide. According to this expert, Mr. Kono is holding many advantages, but whether he can be elected and maintain power in the future depends on how he attracts the support of Japan's established political class./.