Japan’s new PM creates Cabinet-level role to manage economic threat from China

日本新首相設立部長級職位來應對來自中國的經濟威脅

Harvard-educated Takayuki Kobayashi set to be Japan’s first minister of economic security


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Fumio Kishida, 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, Takayuki Kobayashi, 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 Akira Amari.

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.

Nobuo Kishi, the brother of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will be continuing in his role as defense minister, a job he began under outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

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.