Japan PM Takaichi retains most key ruling party execs in 1st reshuffle

TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi retained many of her Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) executives in her first reshuffle of its top team on Sept 16, seeking to maintain continuity ahead of a packed legislative agenda into the end of the year.

Takaichi kept the influential former prime minister Taro Aso, who heads the party’s sole remaining faction following an intraparty funds scandal and was key to her victory in October 2025’s party leadership race, as LDP vice-president. His brother-in-law Shunichi Suzuki was retained as secretary-general.

Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi was retained as policy chief, while Hiroshi Kajiyama, a former industry minister, seen as a safe pair of hands, replaced Haruko Arimura as head of the LDP’s decision-making General Council.

Takaichi told reporters in Tokyo after unveiling the new line-up that the party will work to “overcome the difficult situation” faced by the country, saying she appointed the executives to “establish an implementation framework under which the government and the LDP can go all out”.

Kajiyama’s former role as Diet affairs chief was filled by House of Representatives member Hideki Murai, previously a deputy chief Cabinet secretary under former prime minister Fumio Kishida.

The appointment of a politician without Cabinet experience as the LDP’s chief negotiator in Parliament comes after he played a significant role in talks with opposition parties on key Bills.

Among other appointments, party election strategy chief Yasutoshi Nishimura and executive acting secretary-general Koichi Hagiuda, both of whom were implicated in a high-profile political slush funds scandal that emerged in late 2023 and dealt a heavy blow to the party, were kept on in their roles.

In a press conference, Suzuki said that “promoting harmony” within the party will be key to achieving the “political stability” needed to deliver for the country.

In a move that may prove controversial, changes to personnel in the LDP leadership in the House of Councillors, in which the ruling coalition lacks a majority, saw caucus head Masaji Matsuyama replace Secretary-General Junichi Ishii with Kazuhiko Aoki, the Upper House rules and administration committee chairman.

Ishii, a skilled negotiator in the Upper House, is viewed as being on poor terms with the Prime Minister after legislative impasses in the chamber. His replacement could spark pushback from party colleagues.

Amid speculation that the Upper House leadership, which has autonomy over its personnel, may have removed Ishii due to influence from the prime minister, Matsuyama told reporters there was “absolutely no outside input”, adding the choice was made “independently”.

The executive reshuffle comes ahead of changes to Takaichi’s Cabinet on Sept 17, and as the ruling coalition of the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) prepares for an extraordinary Diet session, likely to start in early October.

The session is likely to include deliberations towards passing a cut of the consumption tax on food products from 8 per cent to 1 per cent for two years from April 2027, as well as on a controversial political reform Bill reducing Diet seats that led to a boycott by the opposition in the previous session.

Takaichi won the LDP’s presidential contest on Oct 4, 2025, and became the country’s first female prime minister later the same month.

In the Cabinet revamp, she is tipped to retain a number of her top team, including Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

Amid reports that a lawmaker from the junior ruling coalition partner could join the Cabinet as a minister, Takaichi held talks later in the day with JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura as the party carried out its own executive reshuffle.

Speaking at a regular press conference in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said representatives of both sides presented their new line-ups and reconfirmed their intention to resolve issues “based on the coalition between the two parties”. KYODO NEWS