Kishida Ties as 8th-Longest-Serving PM in Postwar Japan

Jiji Press

12:36 JST, April 22, 2024

Tokyo, April 22 (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida marked 932 days in office Monday, tying Ryutaro Hashimoto as the eighth-longest-serving prime minister in Japan since the end of World War II.

The next one to surpass is Nobusuke Kishi, who held office for 1,241 days and ranked seventh among the 35 prime ministers in the postwar period.

To achieve that, Kishida needs to be re-elected in the next presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in autumn. It is uncertain whether he will win.

“We take it as a result of accumulation of everyday efforts to tackle problems that cannot wait,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Friday of Kishida’s latest milestone.

“The government will continue making its all-out efforts to work on various domestic and international issues and produce results one by one,” Hayashi added.

Kishida has already surpassed three of his four predecessors in his Kochikai faction, namely Masayoshi Ohira, Zenko Suzuki and Kiichi Miyazawa. The only exception is Hayato Ikeda, who held office for 1,575 days.

Ahead of the LDP election, Kishida apparently aims to shore up public support for his administration by completely defeating the country’s deflation mainly through planned fixed-amount income and residential tax cuts.

On Sunday, he will face a litmus test for his administration in by-elections of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, which will take place amid unabated public criticism over the slush fund scandal at LDP factions.