TOKYO — Fumio Kishida, the new president of the Liberal Democratic Party, chose a leadership team for the LDP on Thursday that includes his popular former rivals Sanae Takaichi and Taro Kono as Japan’s ruling party shifts gears to the upcoming lower house election.
Kishida is set to be elected Japan’s 100th prime minister in an extraordinary parliamentary session on Monday. But while the picks for executive posts largely align with his campaign promise to put more women and junior figures in charge, they also shed light on the influence that the LDP’s internal politics wield over the new leader.
Takaichi was chosen as LDP policy research chief, an influential position Kishida once held. Taro Aso, who has served as deputy prime minister and finance minister for nearly nine years since being selected by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will become the LDP vice president.
LDP tax policy chief Akira Amari, who backed Kishida early in the race and was instrumental to his victory, was chosen to become the party’s first new secretary-general since August 2016. Kishida hopes to tap the veteran lawmaker’s expertise to solidify his grip over the party and coordinate the LDP’s election campaign.
Tatsuo Fukuda will serve as chairperson of the LDP’s General Council, an unusually senior post for a third-term lawmaker. Toshiaki Endo was chosen to chair the Election Strategy Committee.
None of the picks for the LDP’s most senior positions come from Kishida’s own faction of lawmakers. The choices will be finalized at an extraordinary party meeting held Friday, with an LDP leadership meeting to follow. Key party figures will hold a news conference later.
Unlike predecessors such as outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Abe, Kishida coordinated his decisions with the other LDP factions that helped propel him to the president’s chair. He met with Aso for about an hour on Thursday morning before making his picks.
But that meant factions had more opportunity to weigh in with their requests. The leading Hosoda faction, many of whose members voted for Kishida, urged him to pick the secretary-general or the chief cabinet secretary from within its ranks.
The chief cabinet secretary serves as the party’s face in government and top aide to the prime minister. Kishida initially considered Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda for the role. But the Hosoda faction decided that Hagiuda, a five-term lawmaker, was too green, and the post ultimately went to fellow faction member Hirokazu Matsuno.
Kishida’s decision to put Takaichi and Amari in senior posts also reflects his desire to maintain strong ties with Abe and the former prime minister’s close ally, Aso.
Takaichi had Abe’s support during the race. She won the second-largest number of votes among LDP parliament members, which indirectly helped Kishida defeat Kono. Amari was a close aide to Abe during the latter’s time as prime minister, and helped align the Kishida and Takaichi campaigns in the runoff vote.
Other key choices include Tsuyoshi Takagi for Diet affairs chair and Yuko Obuchi for chair of the Party Organization and Campaign Headquarters.
Kishida picked Kono to chair the LDP Public Relations Headquarters, tapping his popularity with the Japanese public in preparation for the lower house election. Though the post forms part of the LDP leadership, it represents a downgrade for Kono, who has held several key cabinet positions in the past.
Kishida during the leadership race drew support from wide swaths of the party, including the Hosoda, Aso and Takeshita factions. He is expected to prioritize stability as he takes the reins of the party.
“It’s important to strike a balance between the old, the mighty and the new,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Kishida is expected to launch his cabinet Monday after he is formally named prime minister. Though he has not made any public appointments, he will likely keep both Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi.
The Diet’s lower house reaches the end of its current term Oct. 21. Facing an unusually tight time frame for a new prime minister, Kishida is expected to dissolve the lower house around mid-October for an election sometime in early November.
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