Profile: New president of Japan's ruling LDP Fumio Kishida

TOKYO, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Fumio Kishida on Wednesday won the presidential election of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to succeed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

Kishida, a moderate who served as the country's foreign minister from 2012 to 2017, has also worked as the policy chief of the ruling LDP.

In announcing his candidacy, the 64-year-old politician who heads a liberal-leaning intraparty group, called for reducing the wealth disparity by boosting middle-class incomes and also vowed to support economically vulnerable people such as non-regular workers and families with small children.

Kishida was elected in 1993 to the lower house from a constituency in Hiroshima Prefecture, and is a ninth-term member of the House of Representatives.

Under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kishida served as foreign minister for four years and eight months before he was installed as chairman of the LDP's Policy Research Council for three years.

The third-generation politician was considered as a potential successor to Abe but lost to Suga in the LDP presidential race in 2020.