Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday tapped Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to take the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's No. 2 post of secretary general.

       Akira Amari assumed the role only a month ago but has offered to resign following his defeat in his Kanagawa Prefecture constituency in Sunday's general election.

       Motegi, who has been foreign minister since September 2019, said Kishida tasked him with implementing LDP reforms.

       "I think it's important that I make sure we can honor the trust invested in us by the people," the 66-year-old told reporters after meeting with the prime minister at LDP headquarters in Tokyo.

       Kishida is set to make the appointment official on Thursday after returning from a U.N. conference on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland.

       A graduate of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Motegi worked as a political reporter at the Yomiuri Shimbun daily and as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1993.

       He was easily re-elected in his constituency in Tochigi Prefecture in the election of the 465-member lower house, in which the LDP kept a majority.

       Motegi's most senior LDP post to date has been chairman of the Policy Research Council. He had backed Kishida in the LDP leadership race in September.

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