Obuchi completes lineup for new coalition cabinet

Japan Policy & Politics,  Oct 11, 1999  

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TOKYO, Oct. 4 Kyodo

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Monday completed an unofficial lineup for the new cabinet he will form Tuesday to launch a coalition comprising his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Liberal Party (LP) and the New Komeito party.

Obuchi, who is also LDP president, drew up the list in a meeting with senior LDP officials at his official residence.

On Tuesday, the Obuchi cabinet's current ministers will resign en masse at a cabinet meeting to be held from 10 a.m., political sources said, adding Mikio Aoki, who will become chief cabinet secretary, will announce a list of new cabinet ministers around 2 p.m.

Obuchi decided to keep Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and Economic Planning Agency head Taichi Sakaiya in their posts -- a move aimed at underlining his determination to help put the economy on a recovery track.

The premier's appointment of Miyazawa, a former prime minister, and Sakaiya, a best-selling author, was a selling point for his administration, which promised to revive the stalled economy when the cabinet was launched in July 1998.

Obuchi also decided to appoint former Foreign Minister Yohei Kono to the post again to entrust him with preparations for next year's Group of Eight (G-8) summit in Okinawa. Kono is a former LDP president.

The premier also decided to appoint former LDP general council head Takashi Fukaya as international trade and industry minister, and Yuya Niwa as health and welfare minister, a post he held seven years ago.

Obuchi decided to give the post of justice minister to former Defense Agency chief Hideo Usui, after former Health and Welfare Minister Takao Fujimoto declined to take it, LDP officials said.

He also decided to appoint former Economic Planning Agency head Michio Ochi to head the Financial Reconstruction Commission, the officials said.

Obuchi had initially planned to give Ochi the health and welfare portfolio but changed his mind after the LDP faction led by former party Secretary General Koichi Kato refused Obuchi's offer to have a member of the faction become head of the commission.

The Kato faction declined the offer because its members are dissatisfied with Obuchi's new party leadership choices, according to LDP sources.

Hirofumi Nakasone, son of former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, will take the education portfolio, while the post of labor minister will be filled by Takamori Makino, a House of Representatives member.

Kayoko Shimizu, a House of Councillors member who will become new Environment Agency chief, will be the only woman in the cabinet, the officials said.

The new cabinet will have one member each from the LP and the New Komeito. The LP's Toshihiro Nikai will be appointed transport minister, while the New Komeito's Kunihiro Tsuzuki will become the head of the Management and Coordination Agency, the officials said.

Obuchi completed the cabinet lineup after concluding a policy accord with LP leader Ichiro Ozawa and New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki earlier in the day.

The accord capped more than two months of talks between the parties, which began after the No. 2 opposition New Komeito decided in July to join the LDP-LP coalition.

The parties reached a compromise on a plan to cut 50 seats from the 500-member lower house -- the major stumbling block on a policy deal.

According to the LDP-proposed compromise, the parties will first seek to eliminate 20 proportional representation seats during the extraordinary Diet session expected to be convened in early November.

The parties will then seek to further reduce 30 seats, mainly from single-seat constituencies, depending on the results of a national census slated for the fall of 2000.

The LP had initially insisted on the elimination of 50 of the 200 lower house seats elected through proportional representation. The New Komeito strongly opposed the plan because more than half of its lower house members were elected that way.

The three-party agreement also stipulates that revenues from the consumption tax will eventually be used solely for welfare purposes.

The new coalition will give the ruling bloc a majority in the opposition-controlled House of Councillors, the upper house of Japan's bicameral Diet.

Obuchi initially planned to launch the coalition last Friday but postponed it in order to cope with the major nuclear accident at Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Kyodo News International, Inc.
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