When Fumio Kishida forms his Cabinet this week, all but one of his ministers are set to return.
Toshimitsu Motegi vacated the foreign minister post to take over as the Liberal Democratic Party secretary-general, and in his place, Kishida has decided to appoint veteran lawmaker Yoshimasa Hayashi. Importantly, Kishida made this pick despite objections from inside the party.
Those objections did not come based on issues related to Hayashi’s qualifications or tenure. Rather, the intraparty controversy over his pick is just the front-facing tension masking just some of the behind-the-scenes fallout from last week’s election. Looking at what’s behind Kishida’s choice for personnel changes helps us understand what is going on inside the LDP right now.