Japan's new foreign minister is a woman, while pro-Taiwan lawmaker gets defence

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has picked a woman as foreign minister and appointed as defence minister a politician who has worked to build ties with Taiwan, Wednesday's (Sept 13) new cabinet line-up showed.

The choices spotlight a face of Japan with greater gender equality and a stronger approach on defence that Kishida seeks to project as he battles sagging ratings, before his term as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is set to end next year.

Yoko Kamikawa, a former justice minister who oversaw the execution of key members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult responsible for the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, becomes foreign minister.

Top government spokesperson Hirokazu Matsuno added that the role of defence minister goes to Minoru Kihara, a pro-Taiwan politician who has visited the island in the past and belongs to a Japan-Taiwan interparliamentary group.

Kihara is a former vice minister of defence.

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