Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to reshuffle his Cabinet and party leaders early next month, 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 Abe’s vulnerability after nearly five years in power, with many blaming voter perceptions of arrogance on his part and that of Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
Opinion polls yesterday showed Abe’s popularity at its lowest since he returned to power late in 2012, with support of 36 percent in one conducted by the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun — tumbling from 49 percent a month earlier.
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Another, in the liberal Asahi Shimbun, found support of 33 percent, a slide from 38 percent from a week earlier, with 60 percent of independent voters not supporting Abe’s Cabinet — numbers Suga said the prime minister was aware of.
“I believe he wants to sincerely accept this as the voice of the people,” Suga told a news conference, adding that the administration needed to “be even more earnest” about tasks such as rebuilding the economy.
Abe, in Europe for the G20 summmit, told traveling media he would retain core officials in the reshuffle of the Cabinet and ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officials next month.
“I will reshuffle the LDP leadership and the Cabinet members early next month, aiming to renew peoples’ feelings,” Jiji news agency quoted Abe as saying in Stockholm.
“Stability is extremely important to deliver results. The core structure of the Cabinet should not be changed so often,” he said.
Japanese media said the remarks mean he would retain Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who also serves as minister of finance, along with Suga and LDP No. 2 Toshihiro Nikai, while ditching gaffe-prone Minister of Defense Tomomi Inada.
He also said he would skip a planned visit to Estonia and would arrive back in Japan a day early to visit the flood-devastated southwest.
Reshuffling the Cabinet is a step often taken by beleagured leaders to repair popularity, but Suga denied that was the case.
“The prime minister is himself selecting the best person for each job in order to achieve what we have to do,” he said.
Abe faced another challenge yesterday, when former vice education minister Kihei Maekawa testified to parliamentary panels on concerns Abe might have intervened to help win approval for a veterinary school run by an education group whose director, Kotaro Kake, is a friend.
Abe has repeatedly denied doing Kake any favors.
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