TOKYO (REUTERS) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will reshuffle his Cabinet and party leaders early next month (August), moving to shore up his worst levels of popular support since returning to power in 2012, following a historic loss in a Tokyo assembly election.
Last week's loss, delivered by a novice political group, spotlights his potential vulnerability after nearly five years in power, with many blaming voter perceptions of arrogance on his part and that of his powerful Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
Opinion polls on Monday (July 10) showed Mr Abe's popularity at its lowest since he returned to power late in 2012, with support of 36 per cent in one conducted by the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper - tumbling from 49 per cent a month earlier.
Another, in the liberal Asahi, found support of 33 per cent, a slide from 38 per cent from a week earlier.
Mr Abe, in Europe for a summit of leaders of the G-20 grouping of nations, told travelling media he would retain core officials in the reshuffle of the Cabinet and ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officials planned for August.
"I will reshuffle the LDP leadership and the Cabinet members early next month, aiming to renew peoples' feelings," Jiji news agency quoted him as saying in Stockholm.
"Stability is extremely important to deliver results. The core structure of the Cabinet should not be changed so often."
Japanese media said the remarks mean he will retain Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who also serves as Finance Minister, along with Mr Suga and LDP No. 2 Toshihiro Nikai, while ditching gaffe-prone Defence Minister Tomomi Inada.
He also said he would skip a planned visit to Estonia and arrive back in Japan a day early to visit the flood-devastated south-west.
Exactly a year ago, Mr Abe's ruling bloc stormed to a landslide victory in an election for Parliament's Upper House, despite concerns over his economic policies and plans to revise the nation's post-war Constitution.
His administration has since been battered by a scandal over suspicions of favouritism to a friend's business, verbal gaffes by Cabinet ministers and concerns about his intentions to revise the Constitution.
He faced another challenge on Monday, when former vice-education minister Kihei Maekawa testified to parliamentary panels on concerns that Mr Abe may have intervened to help win approval for a veterinary school run by an education group, whose director Kotaro Kake is a friend.
Mr Abe has repeatedly denied doing Mr Kake any favours, but the panels were set up even though Parliament is in recess.
On July 2, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike's novice Tokyo Citizens First party and its allies - including the LDP's national coalition partner - won a landslide victory in the assembly election, taking 79 of the 127 seats up for grabs.
The LDP got 23 seats, its worst result in the capital and less than half its pre-vote tally.
