With a degree from Georgetown University, experience as foreign and defense minister and the ability to speak fluent English — a rarity among Japan’s top lawmakers — digital minister Taro Kono has a knack for appealing to foreign audiences.
That, combined with his current portfolio, gives Kono, 61, the air of a progressive reformer.
In the past, those attributes also made him popular among the public and fellow Liberal Democratic Party members alike. His popularity was such that he placed second behind Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the last LDP presidential election in 2021, after having gained 60 more proportional votes from the ruling party’s rank-and-file members in the first round of voting than Kishida, and five times more regional votes in the runoff. Kishida prevailed due to the backing of LDP lawmakers.
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