Taro Kano, a U. S.-educated political blue blood who has made a name as a liberal nonconformist, is positioning himself to one day replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
TOKYO — Late in December, Taro Kono, the foreign minister of Japan, was hospitalized to have a ureteral stone removed. That night, he appeared at a party for the 84th birthday of Emperor Akihito. The next day, he campaigned on behalf of a mayoral candidate on the southern island of Kyushu, almost 600 miles from Tokyo. A day later, on Christmas Eve, he flew to Tel Aviv to begin a five-day trip to the Middle East.
It was the kind of relentless schedule, well documented on social media, that brought to mind a candidate for higher office. Which is what Mr. Kono is — just one who doesn’t know when his race may start.
Last fall, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a big election victory that put him on track to become the country’s longest-serving leader in modern times. Mr. Abe is 63 years old and has indicated he has no imminent plans to retire: He wants to stay in office at least through the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and the governing Liberal Democratic Party changed its rules last year to allow Mr. Abe to do so.
But a new generation of politicians is already positioning itself to succeed him. Mr. Kono, 55, is one of the most intriguing, bringing a maverick streak to Japan’s usually stodgy political world.
But he will face big challenges. An American-educated political blue blood and a liberal-leaning nonconformist within the conservative governing party, he is trying to position himself as a contender for the country’s top office while still departing from the party’s right wing on issues like nuclear power and immigration.
In an interview at the Foreign Ministry last month, Mr. Kono smiled impishly when asked how soon he might make a bid to lead the Liberal Democratic Party. “You never know,” he said. “Who predicted President Trump two years ago?”
Until being appointed to the cabinet last August, Mr. Kono, who speaks English fluently and left Tokyo’s prestigious Keio University to study at Georgetown University in Washington, was not usually on the list of potential heirs to Mr. Abe, given his sometimes more liberal views.
He is also the son of Yohei Kono, a previous foreign minister who, as chief cabinet secretary in 1993, issued a breakthrough apology to women from Korea and elsewhere who were forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels during World War II. Nationalists in the governing party have long resented the so-called Kono Statement, with some holding it against the son.
And unlike the typically somber political elite, Mr. Kono frequently shows a playful side.
On Twitter, in Japanese and English, he reveals glimpses of his sense of humor.
Exhibiting a sweet tooth, he regularly posts pictures of macarons served in foreign destinations.
