Foreign media analysis: Why can Kishida defeat Kono?

On September 29, the website of the British newspaper "Guardian" published an article titled "Kishida Fumio – a 'Reliable Candidate' for Japan's ruling party", written by Justin Macquarie, which said that Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party adopted a moderate and stable strategy and elected Kishida Fumio as its new leader.

Like Kono Taro, Kishida is a hereditary political leader. But unlike Taro Kono, who has vowed to reform the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has languished for 12 months under the unwelcome Yoshihide Suga, Kishida, a third-generation politician, is seen as a reliable candidate to lead the LDP in a general election that must be held before the end of November.

Kishida's victory marked a return to Japan's leadership style of pragmatism and centrist policy under a leader who was not exciting enough, but justified.

Brad Grosserman, a senior adviser to the Pacific Forum, said: "Forces within the [LDP] have decided for various reasons that Kishida Fumio is a better candidate for stability and long-term rule." ”

He also said expectations of Kishida Werehida were low, "Which is probably a good thing... Because if you don't have much hope for a person, it may be easy to bring surprises."

According to the website of the Russian "Independent" newspaper on September 30, Valery Kistanov, director of the Center for Japanese Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with this newspaper: "Kishida Fumio's victory seems to many observers in Japan and abroad to be unexpected. After all, polls show that its rival Taro Kono has a higher approval rating. However, the opinions of the broad masses and grass-roots party members and the position of party members and cadres are two different things. Some of Kono's radical proposals in domestic and foreign policy, as well as his reformist ideas in the field of party building, have worried the LDP leadership. ”

Although Kishida also proposed some economic and political innovations, in the eyes of the party leadership, these proposals were insignificant compared to Kono's and did not threaten their position or interests in the slightest. Experts say Japan's political ruling group as a whole sees Kishida as a more controllable and predictable player capable of maintaining the status quo in economic and foreign policy.

Source: Reference News Network