TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Kishida Fumio, has created a new post for a minister of economic security, with the focus understood to be on the emerging threat from China, according to reports.
The portfolio for the new minister of economic security, Kobayashi Takayuki, will be oriented around Beijing’s alleged technology theft and economic espionage as well as semiconductor supply chain issues, according to the Financial Times.
Kobayashi, a former vice-minister of defense and three-term lawmaker, is likely to work in tight collaboration on China matters with Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Amari Akira.
The Harvard-educated Kobayishi’s new job is said to be what is in effect the institutionalization within the Cabinet of the Economic Division of the National Security Secretariat, which was established in 2020, per the Japan Times.
Kishi Nobuo, the brother of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, will be continuing in his role as defense minister, a job he began under outgoing Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide.
Prime Minister Kishida, who formally took office on Monday (Oct. 4), is expected to call for a general election at the end of October. Known as a moderate liberal, he is Japan’s 100th prime minister and had previously been the country's longest-serving foreign minister in the post-war era.