Abe to name new LDP leadership, reshuffle Cabinet Monday

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to name the new leadership of his Liberal Democratic Party on Monday morning and subsequently reshuffle his Cabinet in the afternoon, following the heavy defeat his party suffered in July's House of Councillors election.

Outgoing Foreign Minister Taro Aso accepted Abe's request by phone Sunday to take the post of LDP secretary general, the party's second-in-command.

On Monday morning, Abe is expected to summon Aso and two other people for three key posts in the new LDP leadership at the party headquarters and ask them to take the positions.

The new LDP leadership is expected to be approved at an extraordinary meeting of the party's General Council to be convened at 10 a.m.

The three posts are secretary general, Policy Research Council chairman and General Council chairman.

To change the Cabinet lineup, Abe is expected to convene a meeting of current ministers by around 1 p.m. so that they can submit their resignations.

After holding talks with Akihiro Ota, head of the LDP's coalition ally, the New Komeito party, Abe is expected to start summoning his intended new Cabinet members.

The revamped Cabinet is expected to be launched officially Monday evening after an attestation ceremony at the Imperial Palace.

Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, the only Cabinet member from New Komeito, is tipped to retain his post as land, infrastructure and transport minister.

Abe is believed to be eying the appointments of veteran LDP lawmakers such as former foreign ministers Nobutaka Machimura and Masahiko Komura and LDP policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa, sources close to the matter said.

Abe is expected to appoint to the Cabinet people capable of handling the pension recordkeeping blunders and measures to make campaign funding by politicians more transparent.

Both issues are thought to have been factors behind the LDP's defeat in the July 29 upper house election that left the party and New Komeito in a minority in the upper chamber.