Kishida, 64, who won the 2021 LDP leadership election with 60.2% of the vote in the runoff against Taro Kono, is seen as dovish on foreign policy and lukewarm about revising the pacifist constitution.

Kishida's Cabinet will reportedly have 13 newcomers while also including veterans such as Toshimitsu Motegi and Nobuo Kishi.

His cabinet will face significant challenges while governing the country that has suffered surging Covid-19 infections, a stagnating economy, a rapidly aging population, and increasing tensions with China.

After working at now-defunct Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan and then as a secretary to a member of the House of Representatives, Kishida was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1993 general election, representing the Hiroshima 1st district.

Kishida served as Minister of Okinawa Affairs from 2007 to 2008, firstly in the Abe Cabinet and later in the Fukuda cabinet.[10] He was appointed state minister in charge of consumer affairs and food safety in the cabinet of then prime minister Yasuo Fukuda in 2008. Kishida was also the state minister in charge of science and technology in the Fukuda cabinet.

He was close to Makoto Koga, leader of the Kōchikai faction, one of the oldest inside the LDP, and assumed control of it in October 2012 after Makoto Koga announced his retirement from politics.