Japan’s Cabinet gets makeover as support for Abe dips
AP, Tokyo :
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled his Cabinet on Thursday, seeking to repair his tattered approval ratings by installing well-known moderates in key roles.
Abe said he would focus on bread-and-butter issues such as jobs, a pledge he’s made in the past only to prioritize conservative issues such as amending the constitution.
“We will put the economy first,” Abe told reporters after the newly installed Cabinet posed for a customary inaugural photo in morning coats and formal gowns. “There’s much left to do.”
Abe said the appointments were made after deep reflection, based on the ministers’ strengths and experience.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, a key power broker who retained his post, announced the new lineup. It’s Abe’s fourth since he took office in late 2012. The last Cabinet was appointed about a year ago.
Public approval ratings for Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party have suffered after a spate of scandals over alleged cronyism and other abuses. Koichi Nakano, an international politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo who is often critical of the ruling party, said the lineup was “dull” and defensive in nature.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled his Cabinet on Thursday, seeking to repair his tattered approval ratings by installing well-known moderates in key roles.
Abe said he would focus on bread-and-butter issues such as jobs, a pledge he’s made in the past only to prioritize conservative issues such as amending the constitution.
“We will put the economy first,” Abe told reporters after the newly installed Cabinet posed for a customary inaugural photo in morning coats and formal gowns. “There’s much left to do.”
Abe said the appointments were made after deep reflection, based on the ministers’ strengths and experience.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, a key power broker who retained his post, announced the new lineup. It’s Abe’s fourth since he took office in late 2012. The last Cabinet was appointed about a year ago.
Public approval ratings for Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party have suffered after a spate of scandals over alleged cronyism and other abuses. Koichi Nakano, an international politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo who is often critical of the ruling party, said the lineup was “dull” and defensive in nature.
