ABE RESHUFFLES CABINET
Beleaguered Japan PM seeks new start with leadership change
TOKYO
JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday dumped arch-conservatives and embraced critical voices in a cabinet revamp he hopes will stem a decline in public support after a series of scandals and missteps.
Political blueblood Abe, in office since December 2012, has pushed a nationalist agenda alongside a massive policy effort to end years of on-off deflation and rejuvenate the world’s thirdlargest economy.
But he has seen public support rates plummet in the past few months over an array of political troubles, including allegations of favouritism to a friend in a business deal, which Abe strongly denies.
Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered a drubbing in local elections last month, which analysts and newspapers blamed on an increasing “arrogance” on the part of the prime minister.
“I deeply regret that my shortcomings have invited this situation,” a chastened Abe said earlier in the day ahead of the announcement of the cabinet changes.
Abe reappointed former defence minister Itsunori Onodera after close ally and fellow nationalist Tomomi Inada resigned from the post last week, following a scandal at the ministry over the handling of military documents.
He also tapped a pair of lawmakers who have opposed some of his policies.
New Foreign Minister Taro Kono is the son of a dovish top diplomat known for issuing a landmark 1993 apology as chief cabinet secretary over Japan’s use of “comfort women” in World War II.
The US-educated 54-year-old is known as an independentminded, anti-nuclear power advocate, in sharp contrast to Abe’s support for atomic energy.
Kono replaced Fumio Kishida, who served as top diplomat since Abe came to power and is often seen as a future prime minister.
Kishida moved to a top post in the LDP.
Seiko Noda, 56, at one time hailed as Japan’s most likely first female prime minister and who in 2015 tried to challenge Abe for the LDP leadership, was named internal affairs minister.
She replaced Sanae Takaichi, another close Abe ally with strongly nationalist views.
Inada, the former defence minister, delighted conservatives during her tenure but drew domestic and international criticism in December when she prayed at a controversial war shrine here.
Returning defence chief Onodera, 57, held the post for nearly two years until September 2014,
and has vowed to restore unity and confidence within the ministry.
His appointment also comes amid rising tensions surrounding North Korea’s missile development.
Pyongyang launched its latest missile on Friday, just hours after the US and Japan moved to step up sanctions against it following its earlier test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching parts of the US.
The new cabinet was announced by Suga, the government’s top spokesman.
Suga, along with finance minister and deputy prime minister Taro Aso, were among officials who kept their posts. AFP