TOKYO: Some 60 Japanese ruling party lawmakers eager to land ministerial posts for the first time in a possible cabinet reshuffle next month are increasingly anxious about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s health condition.

The Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers on the waiting list are concerned that a cabinet shake-up could be skipped or only some ministers may be replaced even if the reshuffle takes place, depending on the state of Abe’s health, informed sources said.

In the LDP, it is believed that party lawmakers will become qualified to assume a ministerial post for the first time after being elected to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, for at least the fifth time or to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, for the third time or more.

The next cabinet reshuffle is expected to be carried out at the same time as the appointments of new LDP executives to replace current members in the senior posts, whose terms of office are set to end in late September.

As Abe’s condition is thought to be not good, however, a party official said that a cabinet reshuffle is difficult under the current atmosphere.

If the cabinet is reshuffled, opposition parties would certainly increase their calls for the government to convene an extraordinary session of the Diet to give them an opportunity to examine policies of newly appointed ministers, some sources said.

“Skipping a cabinet shake-up could be an option” for Abe, a government official said, noting that facing the opposition side in parliamentary debates would be a heavy burden for the prime minister with a health issue.

A lawmaker on the waiting list said that most of the current ministers, including those playing central roles in the country’s ongoing fight against the novel coronavirus, may be retained even if a reshuffle takes place.

Major minister candidates among the lawmakers on the waiting list include Shinsuke Okuno, former state minister of internal affairs and communications, and former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kotaro Nogami. Both of them belong to the largest LDP faction, led by former LDP Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda. Okuno has been elected to the Lower House for the fifth time, and Nogami to the Upper House for the third time.

The LDP faction led by Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso plans to propose Shinji Inoue, former state minister of environment, and Shintaro Ito, former state minister of foreign affairs, as candidates for ministerial posts. They are both in their sixth terms as Lower House members.

Possible candidates in the faction led by former LDP General Council Chairman Wataru Takeshita include Asahiko Mihara, former parliamentary vice minister of defense, who has been elected to the Lower House for the eighth time.

An LDP official said that a certain number of lawmakers need to be picked as first-time ministers from the waiting list.

Still, a veteran LDP lawmaker disagreed, saying that “I think it’s difficult to carry out a cabinet reshuffle” under the current circumstances.

JIJI Press