Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to retain Yoshihide Suga as chief Cabinet secretary along with three of his deputies in a Cabinet reshuffle that will likely take place on Sept. 4, a government source said Saturday.
In addition to Suga's three deputies — Katsunobu Kato, Hiroshige Seko and Kazuhiro Sugita — five special advisers to Abe — Taro Kimura, Yosuke Isozaki, Seiichi Eto, Hiroto Izumi and Eiichi Hasegawa — will also stay on to maintain the decision-making functions of the prime minister's office, the source said.
Abe wants to replace more than half of the 18 ministers he picked for Cabinet formed in December 2012 and replace some of them with colleagues from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party who are eager to ascend to the Cabinet, ruling coalition officials said.