A Childhood In Queens Shaped Japan's Likely Next Prime Minister (original) (raw)

ELMHURST, QUEENS — Fumio Kishida, the likely next prime minister of Japan, says his childhood years in Queens instilled in him the ideals of justice and diversity by which he hopes to lead his country.

In 1963, when he was six years old, Kishida moved with his family to Queens for his father’s job. He attended second and third grade at P.S. 13 in Elmhurst, where he can be seen posing in front of an American flag in a class photo — an image first reported by the New York Times.

Despite facing racism himself, Kishida came to admire the melting pot that is the World’s Borough, where students of different backgrounds “respected the national flag and sang the anthem together in the morning,” the Times reported.

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These early encounters with justice and diversity helped shape policies by which he hopes to lead Japan, like economic policies that would distribute more wealth to the middle class.

Kishida, a former Japanese Foreign Minister, won the Liberal Democratic Party’s election on Wednesday.

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He is all but guaranteed to become Japan's next prime minister on Monday after a vote in parliament, which is controlled by his party and its coalition partner.

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