TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday (Dec 13) announced he would make changes to his cabinet as he seeks to stem the fallout from a fundraising scandal that has further dented public support for his embattled administration.
The premier told a press conference he would make the changes on Thursday, just three months after a previous cabinet overhaul.
"I will take the lead in fighting to rebuild the ways of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to restore trust in politics," he said referring to his ruling LDP party.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, a powerful figure who coordinates policy across government on his behalf, is among four ministers and several deputy ministers expected to go, according to media reports.
Kishida said the changes were still being finalised.
The shake-up comes as prosecutors investigate whether some lawmakers in the ruling party received thousands of dollars in fundraising proceeds missing from official party accounts, according to media reports.
But analysts say a cabinet clearout is unlikely to draw a line under a scandal that has raised serious questions about Kishida's leadership and thrown his government into disarray.
Koichi Hagiuda, a high-ranking official from the LDP who oversees budget proposals, has decided to resign, broadcaster NHK and Kyodo news agency reported. Kishida is also considering shelving a planned trip to Brazil and Chile next month, the Mainichi newspaper said.
"The most Mr Kishida can hope for is to arrest the current decline in his personal support. Increasing it, however, will require more than cosmetic changes to personnel," said Corey Wallace, a political science scholar at Kanagawa University.
"There's only so many times this tactic works over a short period until diminishing returns set in."
Public support for Kishida's administration has slipped as low as 23 per cent in recent polls, the lowest since he came to office in 2021. He has twice reshuffled his cabinet, replacing ministers linked to a previous scandal in late 2022, and again in September as he looked to shore up his sagging ratings.
Support for his ruling LDP has fallen below 30 per cent for the first time since 2012, when it returned to power after a blip in its near total post-war dominance of Japanese politics, an NHK survey on Tuesday showed.
The prime minister does not need to hold an election until October 2025, and a fractured and weak opposition has historically struggled to make sustained inroads into the LDP's hold on power despite its at times fractious factional politics.
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2023-12-13 11:14:07Z
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