Weed Control of Administration

While he had no positive motivation for shuffling, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe established new Cabinet on Wednesday. Although he tried to appeal his willingness to empower businesswomen by appointing as many woman ministers as possible, it was obvious to eyes of the public that he would not change the course anyhow. Main purpose, however, appeared to be easing frustration among lawmakers in the leading party and pick the weeds on his lawn.

A dandelion bloomed unexpectedly wide in Abe’s garden was Secretary General of Liberal Democratic Party, Shigeru Ishiba. Although Abe offered Ishiba a new post in the Cabinet, Minister for Security Legislation, which would be an crucial post for passing bills for activating the cabinet decision of exercising collective self-defense right. Ishiba dismissed the offer and requested his stay as Secretary General.

Ishiba’s irregular revolt against Abe resulted in a failure. Afraid of underground movement in the party to defeat current leadership, Abe denied Ishiba’s request and offered another post, Minister for Regional Revitalization. The choice of rejecting it again should have meant being pushed out from main stream in the party for Ishiba, which might invite hardship for him and his colleagues, namely in terms of political money. As an always reasonable man, Ishiba chose to accept the second offer, being a leader’s pet.

Abe also removed another unstable factor in his Cabinet. Three ministers who kept on visiting Yasukuni Shrine were all fired. New Secretary General and Chairman of General Council of LDP have long and close relationship with Chinese leadership. Those must be signals of willingness to improve the relationship with China, that had been criticizing consecutive Yasukuni visit of Abe and his colleague. Actually, Beijing delivered a moderate statement on the Cabinet shuffle, taking those decisions into consideration.

Having said that, it is not clear whether Abe administration will be able to get rid of negative situation in economy. Personal consumption has been declining after introducing new sales tax rate in April, pushing real wage down. Abe will decide by this yearend whether the rate should be raised again. Stimulus policy increases huge accumulation of long-term debt, making international market skeptical on the future of Japanese economy.

There is no positive perspective to improve relationship with South Korea. Even if leaders talk between Abe and Xi Jinping is held in Beijing in November, that will not be a turning point of China’s retreat from the sea around Senkaku Islands. Although Abe managed to stabilize his administration, no substantial progress can be seen.