Japan's incoming prime minister Fumio Kishida is set to formally take office today, forming a government faced with the immediate task of handling the coronavirus pandemic and softening the economic blows it has brought.

Kishida (above), a former foreign minister with an image as a low-key consensus builder, was chosen last week to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), beating three other contenders to take the post and ultimately, based on the party's majority in Parliament, the premiership...