LDP Head Takaichi Likely to Tap Motegi for Key Cabinet Post

Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s newly elected Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi is expected to appoint former Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi, 69, to a key cabinet post if she becomes prime minister. Takaichi, 64, elected LDP president Saturday, aims to launch her party leadership team as early as Tuesday after deciding whom to tap for positions including chair of the Policy Research Council. She intends to name General Council Chairman Shunichi Suzuki, 72, as secretary-general. Motegi, who led a now-defunct intraparty faction, ran against Takaichi in the LDP election. He instructed former members of the faction to vote for Takaichi in the runoff. Takaichi is mulling appointing former Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, 56, a former Motegi faction member with whom Takaichi shares a conservative political stance, as chief cabinet secretary. She is considering putting LDP supreme adviser Taro Aso, who heads the party’s sole surviving faction, back to the post of vice president. But Aso has not indicated whether he would accept the post. Takaichi does not plan to exclude from key posts lawmakers embroiled in a political funds scandal involving factions. Those who belonged to a disbanded faction once led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have called on her to offer a key post to former Policy Research Council Chairman Koichi Hagiuda, 62. She will examine public opinion and internal criticism before making a decision on whether to appoint Hagiuda. The other candidates in the LDP race–agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 44, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, 50, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, 64–are expected to be given important roles as well. Meanwhile, the start of an upcoming extraordinary session of parliament may be delayed from the initially expected date of Oct. 15 if discussions with the LDP’s junior partner, Komeito, on their coalition prove difficult. The parliament is likely to name the next prime minister on the first day of the extraordinary session. “Talks may not go smoothly,” Jun Azumi, secretary-general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters Monday. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]