Japan’s new Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said Tuesday that his country was facing the most serious regional security situation in the post-World War II era.
Shigeru Ishiba became Prime Minister on Tuesday following a parliamentary vote, immediately announcing the composition of his government which will have to face a series of economic, political and international challenges.
“Our country’s security has never been under greater threat than since the end of the Second World War,” he said during his first press conference as prime minister.
Ishiba, 67, previously called for the creation of an Asian NATO to counter China’s rapid military buildup, North Korean missile launches and other security threats.
“With the Japan-US alliance as a foundation, we will expand the circle of like-minded friendly countries, using diplomacy and defense to achieve peace in Japan and the region,” he said.
Mr. Ishiba won on Friday after a close election the head of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, conservative right), a party in power almost without interruption in Japan since 1955.
His appointment as prime minister by Parliament, where the ruling coalition has a comfortable majority, was only a formality.
Mr. Ishiba announced the composition of his government, which has 19 members at his side, including two women – compared to five in the outgoing administration.
Former chief executive secretary Katsunobu Kato was named finance minister, while Gen Nakatani is in charge of defense and Takeshi Iwaya is named foreign minister.
“Restore confidence”
The new Prime Minister announced on Monday that he wanted to establish the legitimacy of his government by calling early legislative elections on October 27.
Mr. Ishiba, a seasoned politician who has held several ministerial positions including Defense and Agriculture, had previously tried four times to take the reins of the PLD, without success.
His personality, which divides within the party, is – unlike that of his predecessor Fumio Kishida – relatively popular among voters, according to analysts.
Mr. Ishiba will be confronted in particular with the sluggish consumption of Japanese households and the weakness of wage growth, which constitute a brake on the country’s growth.
“I will lead our economy and fiscal policies by prioritizing ending deflation,” he said.
He had supported the monetary normalization initiated by the Bank of Japan this year with the increase in its rates: his appointment on Friday caused the yen to jump and the Tokyo Stock Exchange to collapse on Monday, a higher yen penalizing exporters.
The new Minister of Finance, Mr. Kato, 68, also pleaded with Bloomberg in September to “continue to change” the interest rate and the consumer price. Investors also fear corporate tax increases to finance new recovery measures.
Another priority: the worrying issue of the falling birth rate in Japan, which has the oldest population in the world behind Monaco.
He will also have to face voters’ distrust of his party after a series of political and financial scandals which shook it, undermining Mr. Kishida’s popularity rating.
Regional tensions
Beyond Japan’s borders, the new leader will also have to manage international tensions, while his predecessor committed to doubling defense spending and strengthening ties with the United States and other countries shaken by the rise of China and the behavior of Russia and North Korea.
Last week, a Japanese warship crossed the Taiwan Strait for the first time. A week earlier, a Chinese aircraft carrier had sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan.
Japan has also taken off fighter jets several times in recent weeks to respond to the activities of Russian and Chinese aircraft, including in its airspace.
Mr. Ishiba, who visited Taiwan in August, is in favor of the creation of a military alliance in the region, modeled on NATO and its principle of collective defense.
“By replacing Russia with China and Ukraine with Taiwan, the lack of a NATO-like system of collective self-defense in Asia means that wars are likely to break out because there is no has no obligation of mutual defense,” declared Mr. Ishiba in a recent policy document.