On Wednesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled his Cabinet for the seventh time since 2012. There were 23 senior-billet announcements that day: 19 Cabinet postings and four executive positions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

There are many different angles from which to examine the outcomes of those selections, ranging from what they may portend for post-Abe political leadership and the number of women appointed to the factional breakdown, potential policy impacts and so on.

As a longtime analyst of Japanese politics, I see the importance of reshuffles as signals of a prime minister's available political capital and of who is wielding power in the LDP.