Japan’s New Leader

The Economist magazine continues its usually astute and detailed coverage of the Japanese political scene with an article about the country’s new prime minister, Kishida Fumio, who was recently elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Fumio has taken the reins of office from Yoshihide Suga, an unpopular leader who announced last month that he would not seek reelection as leader of his party. Fumio’s record in Japanese politics and international diplomacy is uneven. As foreign minister under prime minister Shinzo Abe in the last decade, Fumio drank vodka with Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov, but the somewhat forced conviviality did not  ...