Japan’s Ishiba to name ex-defence minister Iwaya as foreign minister, sources say
JAPAN’S incoming prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, will likely name former defence minister Takeshi Iwaya as foreign minister when he forms his government this week, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday (Sep 29).
Iwaya, defence chief from 2018 to 2019, helped Ishiba on strategy in his winning run to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Ishiba, 67, is considering former prime minister Yoshihide Suga for vice-president of the LDP, according to two sources, including one who confirmed Iwaya’s selection.
After winning the LDP race on Friday, Ishiba said he planned to form his government on Tuesday after the lower house of parliament, which the LDP controls, votes on a prime minister.
He will name former chief Cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato as finance minister, Japanese media reported on Saturday, while two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters he would retain Yoshimasa Hayashi as chief Cabinet secretary, a pivotal post that includes the role of top government spokesperson.
Ishiba declined to detail his Cabinet plans in a televised interview on Sunday, but suggested he was willing to consider a snap election in the near future.
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He said Japan’s monetary policy must remain accommodative as a trend, signalling the need to keep borrowing costs low to underpin a fragile economic recovery. It was not immediately clear whether Ishiba, who had been a vocal critic of the Bank of Japan’s past aggressive monetary easing, was taking a more dovish line with his remarks.
Meanwhile, Katsunobu Kato is set to become Japan’s next finance minister, according to Kyodo News, replacing Shunichi Suzuki to take on the job of steering the country’s finances through a period of economic change.
Kato, who contested in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election on Friday, helped guide Japan through the Covid-19 pandemic, when the country fared better than most of its Group of Seven peers. The 68-year-old has played key roles in recent administrations and was a finance ministry official before going into politics.
The former health minister will be taking on one of the highest-profile positions in Cabinet, overseeing a range of policies from currency to budgets. Among the challenges he’ll face is Japan’s perennial problem of the largest debt load among advanced economies. The debt problem is set to become more complicated as the Bank of Japan slowly moves towards more interest rate hikes, which would keep increasing debt-servicing payments. REUTERS
