Kishida Moves to Prime Minister's Official Residence... Left Vacant for 9 Years by Abe and Suga

▲The official residence of the Prime Minister of Japan located in Nagatacho, Tokyo

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will move from the House of Representatives dormitory in Akasaka, Tokyo, to the Prime Minister's Official Residence located in Nagatacho.

According to Japanese media including Asahi Shimbun on the 7th, Prime Minister Kishida is expected to move into the official residence around the 11th.

In Japan, government-provided housing for high-ranking officials is called 'K?jo (official dormitory)', and the working space is called 'Kanzho (official residence)'.

It has been nine years since a Japanese prime minister moved into the official dormitory adjacent to the official residence, last done by former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of the Democratic Party administration.

Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who returned to power in December 2012, lived in his private residence in Shibuya, Tokyo, and his successor, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, stayed in the House of Representatives dormitory, both commuting to the official residence.

The current Prime Minister's Official Residence was renovated from the old residence built in 1929 and has been in use again since April 2005.

It was used as the residence for successive prime ministers but became a vacant house incurring maintenance costs of 160 million yen annually (approximately 1.67 billion KRW) starting from the second Abe administration.

The reasons why former Prime Ministers Abe and Suga vacated the official residence are unclear. However, there have been speculative rumors linking it to the 1932 coup attempt by naval officers during which the then prime minister was assassinated.

When the two former prime ministers left the official residence for unclear reasons, opposition parties criticized them, saying there was a "lack of crisis management awareness."

In fact, during the strong earthquake (magnitude 7.3) off the coast of Fukushima on the night of February 13 this year at 11:08 PM, then-Prime Minister Suga arrived at the official residence 20 minutes after the earthquake occurred, which later became a subject of controversy in the National Diet.

Kyodo News quoted an official saying that Prime Minister Kishida's decision to move into the official residence reflects his "desire to emphasize a stance that prioritizes crisis management."