In a bid to put the brakes on his tumbling popularity, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe engineered a make-or-break reshuffle of his scandal-tainted Cabinet on Thursday, gravitating toward veterans to avoid further trouble.

The lineup suggests Abe trod very carefully, but the reshuffle is nonetheless a gamble that could doom him should it fail to contain the current wave of gaffes and scandals.

The new Cabinet counts among its 19 members 13 lawmakers who have previously held ministerial portfolios.