GIFU – Internal affairs minister Seiko Noda hinted on Saturday that she will not be retained in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after a reshuffle set for Tuesday.
“I was told by bureaucrats that an emergency meeting may be held at the Prime Minister’s Office (in response to the approach of Typhoon Trami), so I have to cut short this meeting and go back to Tokyo for my last service,” Noda said in a speech at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s chapter in Gifu Prefecture.
Noda had been trying until the last minute to run in the party’s leadership election on Sept. 20, in which Abe won a third consecutive term as LDP president to stay in power for another three years.
Noda could not join the leadership race as she failed to gain enough nominations.
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Internal affairs minister Seiko Noda attends a panel meeting at the ministry in August. | KYODO
