Taro Kono

Taro Kono is a member of Japan's House of Representatives, first elected in 1996 for Kanagawa's 15th district. He has held several cabinet posts, among them Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defense and Minister for Digital Transformation.

He studied economics at Keio University before moving to Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he graduated in 1985. He then worked for Fuji Xerox, including at Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific in Singapore, and later for Nippon Tanshi, a maker of automotive components.

He served as State Minister of Justice in 2005 and chaired the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2008. He was foreign minister from 2017 to 2019 and defence minister from 2019 to 2020. In the Suga cabinet he was responsible for administrative and regulatory reform and, from 2021, for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. From 2022 he was Minister for Digital Transformation. Within the Liberal Democratic Party he heads the International Bureau.