Last week, Japan’s former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, 67, was elected by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as leader and will be the next prime minister as a result. Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/EPA-EFE
The newly elected leader of Japan’s ruling political party has selected his cabinet as the incoming prime minister.
Last week, Japan’s former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, 67, was elected by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as leader and, by de facto, the next prime minister. Advertisement
Ishiba will appoint two women, two previous ministers and 13 new faces to his cabinet. But no lawmaker implicated in LDP’s recent fund-raising scandal is expected to take a take a seat at the table, The Asahi Shimbun reported.
Ishiba is expected to take the premiership on Tuesday in a session of the Diet, which is the Japanese parliament.
His government officially will take power in Tokyo that day.
Two ex-Japanese defense ministers will also be making a re-appearance along with two former influential prime ministers Taro Aso as adviser and Yoshihide Suga as vice president. Advertisement
Ishiba said Friday that security and restoring optimism in Japan would be his top priorities.
Takeshi Iwaya, 67, is set to be foreign minister and Gen Nakatani, 66, will serve as defense minister, sources say.
It has been reported the two experienced government ministers will be working to create an Asia version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The soon-to-be-prime minister favors a NATO-style collective security alliance for the region amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan and has said he would seek to overhaul the U.S-Japan alliance with regard to the status of U.S. forces in Japan.
Joining the two familiar government leaders will be two women. Toshiko Abe will lead education and Junko Mihara, will oversee Japanese policies related to children.
As leader of the Diet’s largest party in the lower house, Ishiba will be formally voted in as prime minister on Tuesday, replacing the scandal-plagued outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
Kishida stepped down last month after less than three years at the helm and with a year to run until a general election is due. He had been popular on an international level but his reputation took a beating domestically.
The fallout from the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and legacy party corruption scandals Kishiba inherited involving slush funds forced the former prime minister to fire four cabinet members and saw a series of arrests. Advertisement
Ishiba, however, pledged to appoint a cabinet made up of people from LDP who would exercise their responsibility “appropriately” and acknowledged the imperative of seeking a mandate from the Japanese people through a general election “as soon as possible.”
He defeated the right-leaning Sanae Takiachi for the LDP presidency — campaigning to become the country’s first female leader — in a 215-194 vote in a run-off ballot.
But he also stressed the need to tackle the “severe situation” facing the country.
Siting at the table with the rest of Japan’s government ministers in Tokyo along with Gen Nakatani as defense and Takeshi Iwaya in the foreign ministry will be: Seiichiro Murakami, 72, as Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications; Hideki Makihara, 53, Justice Minister; Katsunobu Kato, 68, Finance Minister; Toshiko Abe, 65, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Takamaro Fukuoka, 51, Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare; Yasuhiro Ozato, 66, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Yoji Muto, 68, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry; Tetsuo Saito, 72, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Keiichiro Asao, 60, Environment Minister; Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63, Chief Cabinet Secretary; Masaaki Taira, 57, Minister for Digital Transformation; Tadahiko Ito, 60, Reconstruction Minister; Manabu Sakai, 59, National Public Safety Commission Chairman; Junko Mihara, 60, Minister for Policies Related to Children; Ryosei Akazawa, 63, Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization; Minoru Kiuchi, 59, Minister in charge of Economic Security and Yoshitaka Ito, 75, as Minister for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs. Advertisement
