Toshimitsu Motegi, retained as foreign minister, is known as a policy expert well-versed in economic and foreign policy and led Japan's efforts to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan and Southeast Asian nations.

The 65-year-old House of Representatives lawmaker led talks to strike a bilateral trade deal with the United States and conclude the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-member regional free trade agreement.

Currently in his ninth term, Motegi had a diverse career before winning a lower house seat for the first time in 1993, with stints at trading house Marubeni Corp., at the Yomiuri Shimbun daily as a political news reporter, and at McKinsey & Co. as a consultant.

==Kyodo

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