Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seeking a fresh start after
his party's devastating election defeat last month, said yesterday
he planned to reshuffle his Cabinet on August 27.
In a stunning defeat in a July 29 election, Abe's Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner lost their majority
in the parliament's upper house, as voters outraged at scandals and
bungled pension records turned to the opposition.
Abe did not have to step down because the coalition has a huge
majority in the powerful lower house, but his decision to cling to
his post has prompted criticism even within the LDP.
Asked whether a Cabinet shuffle would be conducted on August 27
as has been widely speculated, Abe told reporters: "I'm basically
thinking in that direction."
Abe, who departed yesterday for a week-long trip to Indonesia,
India, and Malaysia, is also seen likely to reshuffle LDP executive
posts on the same day.
"I would like to think about this thoroughly while taking into
consideration various standpoints," Abe said about the Cabinet
reshuffle.
While Abe steered clear of any specifics, the Yomiuri
newspaper reported that LDP policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa and
former foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura were among the lawmakers
who may join the new Cabinet.
Members of Machimura's faction within the LDP are pushing for
him to become the new chief Cabinet secretary, the daily said,
adding that Abe was thought to be considering Nakagawa as a
possible candidate for farm minister or an economic-related Cabinet
post.
Abe's first stop during his southeast and south Asian tour is
Indonesia, where he and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono are expected to sign a free trade agreement.
The prime minister heads to India tomorrow.
Before leaving for Malaysia on Thursday, Abe is also slated to
stop in Kolkata, West Bengal, to meet with the son of Radhabinod
Pal, a judge from India who sat on the bench at the post-World War
II Tokyo war crimes' trials.
Pal called the war crimes trials victor's justice and voted for
the innocence of those standing trial, the only one of the
tribunal's 11 judges to do so. The judgment has endeared him to
many Japanese nationalists.
(China Daily August 20, 2007)
