Murai Eyed as LDP Parliamentary Affairs Head in Reshuffle

Tokyo, Sept. 14 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is considering appointing former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hideki Murai as parliamentary affairs chief of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party in an upcoming reshuffle of the party’s leadership team, it has been learned. Arrangements are also underway for picking Hiroshi Nakatsuka, secretary-general of the Japan Innovation Party, the coalition partner of the LDP, for a ministerial post in the Takaichi cabinet, informed sources said. In a television program on Monday evening, LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki said that Takaichi will reshuffle the LDP executive lineup on Wednesday and the cabinet on Thursday. It is customary for the post of LDP parliamentary affairs chief to be held by a person who has served as a cabinet minister, so appointing someone with no cabinet experience to the position would be unusual. The prime minister apparently aims to signal a fresh start for the LDP leadership team by naming Murai, who is active in reforming the Diet, the country’s parliament, to the post, party sources said. Murai, 46, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, has been elected to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, six times. He served as special adviser to the prime minister in the administration of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and then as deputy chief cabinet secretary, a role of liaison between the LDP’s Diet affairs committee and the prime minister’s office. Later, Murai engaged in coordination between the ruling and opposition sides in the Diet, serving in posts such as the ruling bloc’s chief director at the board of the Lower House’s steering committee. In an extraordinary Diet session seen to be convened in early October at the earliest, the focus will be on bills to cut the consumption tax rate on food products and reduce the number of Lower House seats. Murai’s skills as LDP Diet affairs chief will be tested after he provoked a backlash during the special Diet session earlier this year for criticizing the opposition side’s strategy of boycotting parliamentary deliberations as outdated. The JIP became the LDP’s coalition partner last October while sending none of its members to the cabinet. The party would be bound to bear greater responsibility for the management of the Takaichi administration with the expected appointment of Nakatsuka to a ministerial post. Nakatsuka, 70, who has been elected to the Lower House three times, became JIP secretary-general in August 2025. Previously, he served as mayor of the city of Hirakata in Osaka Prefecture and a member of the assembly of the western Japan prefecture. It seems that the prime minister highly evaluates his track records in local administration and political party management. Takaichi met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara at the prime minister’s official residence on Sunday for detailed talks on the shake-ups of the LDP executive team, the cabinet and the lineup of state ministers and parliamentary vice ministers. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]