Kishida shuffles key Cabinet and LDP posts amid sagging approval ratings

Faced with sagging approval ratings, surging tensions with China and controversy over lawmakers' links to the Unification Church, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida opted Wednesday for experience and stability as he shuffled key ministers for the first time in his tenure.

Onetime Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has again taken over that portfolio, reprising a role he filled from 2008 to 2009, while the position of economic security minister has been handed to former LDP policy chief Sanae Takaichi, a disciple of slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a former rival to Kishida for the party presidency.

Takaichi is one of just two women to make up the 20-member Cabinet, which includes the prime minister. Known as being a hawk on military matters and particularly tough on China-related issues, she was Abe’s pick for the LDP top job. However, without the backing of a major faction, she lacked the intraparty support to become its leader and, by extension, the country’s first female prime minister.

Taro Kono, another former defense chief and a front-runner in last year’s leadership race, has been named digitalization minister. He has been outspoken on various social issues in the past — including recently using his English-language Twitter account to highlight the low number of women in top government positions.

Under the digitalization initiatives of former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Kono was a key driver behind pushback against both workplace hanko (stamp) culture and the reliance on fax. His ability to communicate with a large number of followers via social media, meanwhile, makes him an obvious candidate to lead the government’s digitalization drive.

Kishida has emphasized the need for unity within the party, and the willingness to hand top government positions to his erstwhile rivals points to a desire to appease potentially fractious voices from within and strengthen cross-factional ties.

“Amid the tense international situation, we will do our utmost to build up a new international order for the new post-Cold War era to protect the peace and security of our country,” Kishida told a news conference Wednesday evening.

“In this Cabinet reshuffle, I have decided to appoint ministers with both experience and the ability to address the mountain of challenges while also maintaining continuity,” he added. “It’s a Cabinet that can implement policies decisively.”

The prime minister also appears to have heeded public calls to address lawmakers’ links to the Unification Church, with reports suggesting that up to seven Cabinet members were moved out due to their ties to the group.

Kishida said that he had only appointed Cabinet ministers who had agreed to review their relationship with the Unification Church.

“Freedom of religion should be ensured,” he said. “But politicians need to be careful in building a relationship with a group that is perceived as problematic.”

The prime minister said he had instructed ministers to take necessary measures if religious groups violate relevant laws, and that ministries should be cooperating with each other to provide support and relief to victims of problematic sales tactics.

Four of the LDP's six executive positions were also subject to a shakeup.

Koichi Hagiuda — a onetime Abe confidant who had been serving as economy minister — took over as chairman of the powerful LDP Policy Research Council. Hagiuda, a member of the largest intraparty faction previously headed by Abe, will face the task of ironing out differences within the ruling camp over security policies and COVID-19 measures.

Speaking at a news conference earlier in the day, Hagiuda pointed to China's growing military assertiveness, including its recent launch of five ballistic missiles into Japan's exclusive economic zone off Okinawa, and pledged to work to "drastically bolster Japan's defenses," including through a defense budget equivalent to 2% of gross domestic product within five years.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi Moriyama, who supported former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga with LDP heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai, was put in charge of the election strategy committee, and Toshiaki Endo, who previously served as election chief, was tapped as General Council chairman.

LDP Vice President Taro Aso and Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi remained in their respective party posts.

The shakeup came a month earlier than expected, with analysts initially predicting a Cabinet reshuffle in early September. However, Kishida brought the changes forward against a backdrop of falling approval ratings — the first significant decline in his Cabinet's support rate in 10 months of otherwise robust polling.

“Our country is currently facing some of the greatest challenges of the postwar period, both domestically and internationally,” Kishida told a news conference in Nagasaki on Tuesday after attending a ceremony to mark the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.

“Unity of government and within the ruling party is more important than ever if we are to overcome these difficulties, and we will carry out the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle based on this understanding,” he added.

As regional tensions around Taiwan continue to boil following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island last week — which angered Beijing and triggered a huge escalation of Chinese military activities in the region — defense and security considerations are currently running high.

Hamada, who served as defense minister for nearly a year in the Aso Cabinet, takes the reins from Nobuo Kishi, who is said to be departing due to health considerations. Kishi is the younger brother of Abe, who was shot while on the campaign trail ahead of last month’s Upper House election.

Abe’s suspected assailant is reported to have said he targeted the LDP heavyweight due to his connections to the Unification Church — a controversial religious organization that originated in South Korea — and Kishi has also admitted to an association with the group.

Still, in a sign of the importance Kishida is placing on continuity on defense issues, he was expected to ask Kishi — who has been wheelchair-bound for months now due to an undisclosed condition — to serve as a special adviser to the prime minister on national security issues. The adviser post is not as labor intensive as a Cabinet slot, but would effectively be a direct line to the prime minister.

Kishida's decision to replace Kishi with Hamada comes at a crucial time for Japan — and the prime minister — as the government looks to revamp its National Security Strategy and other key security documents that will lay the foundation for the country’s defense policy for possibly years to come.

In his nearly two years as defense chief, Kishi was known for his strong stance on China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, especially in relation to its moves near Taiwan in the wake of Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine. The ailing defense minister has also been a proponent of bolstering Japan’s defenses, including strengthening its security alliance with the United States.

Hamada, who beyond his term as defense minister also served in a number of security-related positions, is seen as well-versed on defense issues and a steady hand to steer the Kishida administration through what are expected to be contentious internal debates on issues such as a defense budget hike, acquiring a so-called counterstrike capability and increasingly volatile Sino-Japanese relations.

The former defense chief was one of a group of four lawmakers who visited Taiwan and met with President Tsai Ing-wen late last month just ahead of the controversial trip by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

As a part of his focus on continuity, Kishida retained Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and economic revitalization minister Daishiro Yamagiwa. Tetsuo Saito, a lawmaker from the LDP's junior coalition partner, Komeito, kept his seat as land, infrastructure, transport and tourism minister.

Among other Cabinet posts, Yasutoshi Nishimura, who was in charge of the government's COVID-19 response, will serve as industry minister, while Minoru Terada, an adviser to the prime minister, takes up the internal affairs portfolio and former health minister Katsunobu Kato returns to that post.

One NHK national poll conducted Friday through Sunday pegged the Cabinet’s approval rating at 46%, the lowest level of Kishida’s time as prime minister and a 13 percentage point decline from the last poll conducted three weeks ago.

Inflation and the government’s decision to hold a taxpayer funded state funeral for Abe are among other factors exerting downward pressure on the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating — a sudden drop that commentators believe has prompted Wednesday’s fast-track approach to announcing new Cabinet and LDP appointments.

The new Cabinet lineup:

Prime Minister: Fumio Kishida (65)

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister: Minoru Terada (64)

Justice Minister: Yasuhiro Hanashi (62)

Foreign Minister: Yoshimasa Hayashi (61, retained)

Finance Minister: Shunichi Suzuki (69, retained)

Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister: Keiko Nagaoka (68)

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister: Katsunobu Kato (66)

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister: Tetsuro Nomura (78)

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister: Yasutoshi Nishimura (59)

Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister: Tetsuo Saito (70, retained)

Environment Minister: Akihiro Nishimura (62)

Defense Minister: Yasukazu Hamada (66)

Chief Cabinet Secretary: Hirokazu Matsuno (59, retained)

Digital Minister: Taro Kono (59)

Reconstruction Minister: Kenya Akiba (60)

Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission: Koichi Tani (70)

Minister in charge of regional revitalization: Naoki Okada (60)

Minister in charge of economic revitalization: Daishiro Yamagiwa (53, retained)

Minister in charge of economic security: Sanae Takaichi (61)

Minister in charge of measures for declining birthrate: Masanobu Ogura (41)