Beleaguered Japan PM seeks new start with cabinet revamp

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister (PM) Shinzo Abe on Thursday 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 late 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 favoritism to a friend in a business deal – which Abe strongly denies.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered a drubbing in local Tokyo 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 defense 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’’ – a euphemism for sex slavery – 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.

Meanwhile, 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 in Tokyo.

Returning defense chief Onodera, 57, held the post for nearly two years until September, 2014, and has vowed to restore unity and confidence within the ministry.