After the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election, I suggested that a successful start for Sanae Takaichi would be determined by how well she handled four immediate tasks — a world-class Cabinet constructed to reunify the party, a new ruling coalition positioned to pursue the "Japanese conservative" agenda, fixing the trade deal with the United States so it can be the advertised "win-win" and confirming a prime minister's right to pay respects to the spirits of those who died in service to Japan.
Ending the self-destructive practice of predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba of building exclusionary Cabinet and party leadership teams, Takaichi reverted to Shinzo Abe’s approach of balancing the needs and ambitions of the entire party.
Takaichi assigned plum roles to each of her opponents during the LDP presidential election: Yoshimitsu Motegi as foreign minister, Shinjiro Koizumi to lead the Defense Ministry, Yoshimasa Hayashi as internal affairs and communications minister and Takayuki Kobayashi as the LDP policy chief — one of the top positions in the party. In addition, she reduced the Cabinet's average age by five years.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.