TOKYO: Shigeru Ishiba, new leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is considering a plan to hold an election of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, on Oct. 27 at the earliest, with the official campaign period starting on Oct. 15, informed sources said Sunday.

As for the new LDP leadership team to be launched on Monday, Ishiba plans to appoint former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, 75, as party vice president and Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, 71, as chairman of the LDP General Council, according to the sources.

Former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, 64, is expected to be picked as chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tetsushi Sakamoto, 73, as chief of the LDP’s Diet Affairs Committee.

Ishiba is slated to be elected prime minister by the Diet Tuesday and form his cabinet later in the day.

He plans to appoint former Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato, 68, as finance minister and is considering naming former Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, 67, as foreign minister.

Tetsuo Saito, 72, a lawmaker of Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the LDP, is likely to be retained as minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism and State Minister of Finance Ryosei Akazawa, 63, a close aide to Ishiba, is also expected to become a member of the Ishiba cabinet, the sources said.

Ishiba is considering appointing Takamaro Fukuoka, 51, chairman of the LDP Policy Board in the House of Councillors, the upper Diet chamber, as minister of health, labor and welfare. State minister of education Toshiko Abe, 65, is expected to be named education minister.

Speaking on a television program Sunday, Ishiba expressed his intention to attend a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related summit meetings to be held in Laos Oct. 6-11.

JIJI Press