Japan’s premier reshuffles Cabinet to improve government's image

ISTANBUL

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday revamped his Cabinet as surveys showed the government’s ratings down.

Kishida, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), also changed faces in the party setup.

The move is seen as Kishida’s attempt to delink his government from a religious group after former Premier Shinzo Abe was shot dead by a disgruntled Japanese citizen last month.

To ease public concern, all members of the new Cabinet and the LDP office bearers “will check and review any links to the Unification Church,” reported Kyodo News, quoting Kishida.

Now known as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, Abe was said to have links with the Unification Church whose followers have been convicted in Japan for illegally obtaining money from people “through the use of threats, including the citing of ancestral karma.”

Seeking to serve a stable administration amid the “biggest challenges of the postwar era,” including COVID-19, inflation, Russia's war on Ukraine, and heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait, Kishida retained Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki.

There are two women ministers in the Cabinet.

Yasukazu Hamada was assigned the defense portfolio for the second time as Tokyo is cementing its alliances with the US and other regional countries amid China’s expanding economic and military influence.

He earlier served as defense chief between 2008 and 2009.

Hamada succeeded Nobuo Kishi, the younger brother of slain Abe.

Sanae Takaichi, the LDP policy chief and a former ally of Abe and known for her hawkish security views, has been given economic security portfolio.

Kishida had defeated Takaichi in the last elections.

The distribution of portfolios also shows Kishida’s attempt to balance the internal bloc politics of the conservative LDP so as to retain influence and support for his leadership.

Koichi Hagiuda was picked as the new LDP policy chief.

The biggest challenge is to bolster diplomacy and security policy as the security environment around Japan is getting increasingly severe, Hagiuda told a news conference.

Commenting on Kishida’s Cabinet shakeup, Japan-based journalist Michael Penn wrote on Twitter: “There isn't much freshness to speak of in the new Kishida Cabinet, but the significant point is that he reshuffled the most potentially problematic people into posts where they are less likely to be able to cause problems for him.”