Japan’s Shunichi Suzuki to sit as finance minister

Former Japanese Olympics minister Shunichi Suzuki is likely to be appointed as the finance minister in the cabinet of the presumed new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the Yomiuri daily reported. Suzuki’s position would play a key role as the country seeks to bounce back from the effect of the coronavirus pandemic.

Suzuki, 68, is the son of former prime minister Zenko Suzuki and brother-in-law of the sitting finance minister, Taro Aso. Suzuki is expected to continue Aso’s moderate policies, keeping a balance between growth and fiscal reform.

Aso is poised to become the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) vice president, following Kishida’s victory at the LDP leadership vote a day earlier. Kishida is expected to be officially voted in as prime minister on Monday and will announce a cabinet reshuffle on the same day.

In a cabinet reshuffle, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi is set to keep his position, while Hirokazu Matsuno, former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s education minister, will likely become the chief cabinet secretary.