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China critic gets key cabinet post in Japan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-11-01 05:38
TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
appointed hawkish Shinzo Abe as Japan's top government spokesman in a cabinet
reshuffle yesterday, strengthening Abe's position as a candidate to succeed the
prime minister next year.
Newly-named
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe speaks to reporters upon
appointment by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a cabinet
reshuffle at the premier's official residence in Tokyo October 31, 2005.
[Reuters] |
Koizumi, who led his Liberal Democratic Party to a landslide win in an
election last month, has said that he will step down when his term as party head
ends next September and that he would appoint potential successors to key spots
in the reshuffle.
Abe, who has close ties to Koizumi, has gained political capital through his
support for the families of Japanese reportedly abducted by the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, and his frequent calls for
economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
Abe is also a hawk on security issues and an outspoken
critic of China.
Abe supports Koizumi's annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine a symbol of
Japan's past militarism, and regularly pays homage there himself.
"Up to now I have also, as a citizen...made visits. I would likely continue
to hold such feelings from now on," Abe told a news conference yesterday.
The 51-year-old Abe consistently tops Japanese media polls of voters'
preferences for who should succeed Koizumi, who has been in office since April
2001.
Abe brushed off the succession issue during the news
conference where he announced Koizumi's new cabinet. "I have never thought of
myself as a Koizumi successor," he said.
Japanese Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi (front C) poses for photographers with his
cabinet members during a photo session at the premier's official residence
in Tokyo October 31, 2005. [Reuters] |
Financial markets, focused on a new Bank of Japan economic report, showed
little reaction to the cabinet announcements.
In a surprise, Koizumi excluded former chief cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda,
seen as one of Abe's strongest rivals, from the cabinet and key party posts.
But Sadakazu Tanigaki and Taro Aso, who round out the media's "top four" list
of candidates to take over from Koizumi, both remained in the cabinet Tanigaki
retaining his post of finance minister and Aso, who was in charge of internal
affairs, taking over as foreign minister from Nobutaka Machimura, who was
dropped from cabinet.
Political analyst Atsuo Ito said it was hard to say who had benefited most
from the reshuffle.
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