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Taro Kono, the cabinet minister in charge of vaccinations, speaks at a press conference as he officially announces that he is running for Liberal Democrat leader in Tokyo on Friday. The Liberal Democrats and their coalition partner have a majority in parliament, meaning whoever wins the party’s vote on September 29 is virtually guaranteed to become the new prime minister. Current Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has said he will not run for the leadership of the ruling party. (photo AP)
TOKYO – Japan’s Vaccination Minister Taro Kono announced on Friday that he is running to become the leader of the ruling party, which is usually chosen as prime minister, and has pledged to be reformist and get things done.
Kono, 58, a Georgetown University graduate and fluent in English, has many younger fans, whom he communicates with via social media, a rarity in Japanese politics. With nearly 2.4 million followers on Twitter, he says he will continue to tweet if he is elected prime minister.
“I will embrace your views and concerns, share information with you, send a strong message and work with you to overcome this crisis we are facing”, Kono said at a busy press conference in Tokyo, referring to the pandemic.
Kono’s statement comes a week after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s sudden announcement that he will not run for another term as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a vote on September 29. The winner is virtually certain to be elected prime minister by parliament as the party and its coalition partner hold the majority of seats.
Two other lawmakers have already declared their candidacies: former centrist foreign minister Fumio Kishida and former home minister Sanae Takaichi, who shares the right-wing ideology of former prime minister Shinzo Abe and revisionist views on the history of war. She seeks to become Japan’s first female leader.
Kono highlighted his accomplishments as vaccine minister, presenting himself as someone who gets things done, breaking down bureaucratic barriers when necessary.
Kono, who is also minister of administrative reform, was chosen by Suga to lead the country’s vaccination campaign in January ahead of its deployment in mid-February, months behind other countries.
Within weeks, Kono was tasked with the ambitious goal of fully immunizing all elderly people in the country by the end of July, which he achieved by increasing the administration of doses to 1 million per day – another goal set by Suga.
Japan is now tied with the United States in terms of the percentage of people who have received at least one injection, and will be in the “first class” among the industrialized countries of the Group of Seven by the end of September or early October, he said.
Kono has been open about his ambition to become prime minister, a position his family members approached but never achieved. His father, Yohei Kono, was the main government spokesman in a coalition government and his grandfather was deputy prime minister.
Kono is a liberal on social issues such as gender equality and diversity, but hawkish on national security.
Kono, who also served as foreign and defense ministers, said he would work with countries that share democratic values and oppose “unilateral” China’s attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas.
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