Tokyo, Sept. 15 (Jiji Press)–Junichi Ishii, secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the Senate will be replaced from his post, it was learned Tuesday. Ishii, 68, was informed of the replacement by Masaji Matsuyama, the LDP’s chairman in the upper chamber of the Diet, party sources said. This personnel change appears to reflect Prime Minister and LDP President Sanae Takaichi’s discontent with Ishii over Upper House affairs. Through the removal of Ishii and the appointment of former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hideki Murai, 46, as LDP Diet affairs chief, Takaichi apparently hopes to secure control over Diet affairs within the party. At a meeting of party executives on Tuesday, Takaichi announced that she would reshuffle the party’s executive lineup on Wednesday and her cabinet on Thursday. Takaichi is expected to retain LDP Vice President Taro Aso, 85, Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki, 73, policy chief Takayuki Kobayashi, 51, Election Strategy Committee chief Yasutoshi Nishimura, 63, and Executive Acting Secretary-General Koichi Hagiuda, 63. Hiroshi Kajiyama, 70, the current LDP parliamentary affairs chief, will be appointed chair of the General Council. During the last Diet session, Takaichi sought the passage of the government’s fiscal 2026 budget bill by the end of March, but the budget passage was delayed until April because LDP members in the Upper House considered cooperating with opposition parties. Ishii led talks to set the Upper House’s deliberation schedule on the budget bill. The LDP chairman in the Upper House has the authority to make personnel decisions for party members in the chamber. Matsuyama, who is currently in the position, plans to replace Ishii with Kazuhiko Aoki, 65, the current chairman of the Upper House Rules and Administration Committee. For her cabinet, which was initially launched in October 2025, Takaichi is planning to keep Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, 57, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, 67, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, 70, and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 45, in their current posts. Of Takaichi’s four rivals in last year’s LDP presidential election, Kobayashi, Motegi and Koizumi will remain in their respective posts, but whether internal affairs minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, 65, will stay on is still uncertain. Hiroshi Nakatsuka, 70, secretary-general of the Japan Innovation Party, the coalition partner of the LDP, will likely join Takaichi’s reshuffled cabinet. The JIP, which formed a partnership with the LDP last October, has so far refrained from sending any of its members to the cabinet. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
