Japanese Prime Minister Completes Formation of New Cabinet

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has appointed a minister charged with spearheading his effort to halt the slide in Japan’s population, which the premier has made the centerpiece of his new plan to revive the world’s third-largest economy.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to reshuffle at least half of his cabinet.

One of the newly appointed ministers in Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle has apparently holstered his criticism of the government’s nuclear policy, potentially exposing him to criticism that he traded his belief in exchange for a prestigious post.

Abe himself had promised not to abolish tariffs on its “sacred sectors”, drawing accusations from other TPP countries that it was acting in a way that was in contrast to the “spirit of the TPP”, and convinced powerful farm lobbies that import levies on overseas agricultural produce would remain disproportionately high to protect Japan’s age-old industries, with the prime minister also committing to a resolution adopted in both chambers of parliament.

Nine priests, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Finance Minister Taro Aso and Economics Minister Akira Amari held their portfolios.

Abe pushed through unpopular security legislation last month and is refocusing on the economy.

“This cabinet aims to tackle challenges for the future – to put the brakes on the aging of the population to keep the population from falling below 100 million and create a society where anyone – old and young, women and men, and those suffering from incurable diseases and the handicapped – can take one more step forward”, Abe told a news conference.

“His most inner-circle not withstanding, all of the new appointments have been made with an eye on them rallying around the’Abenomics’reboot, or’Abenomics 2.0’as it’s been dubbed, which amounts to a reworking of the original policies with perhaps more focus this time around on a quantifiable economic expansion by a lofty 20 percent to 600 trillion yen (5 trillion US dollars), with the similarities being that the target has been announced with no clear explanation or roadmap of how it will be achieved, according to economists,”said Imori”.

Television presenter Tamayo Marukawa, 44, would be the new environment minister. However, the number of women in the Cabinet dropped to three from five.

Hiroshi Hase, a former teacher and professional wrestler, will also replace Hakubun Shimomura as education minister.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, a 54-year-old Upper House lawmaker who in 2012 lost the race for the Liberal Democratic Party leadership post against Abe, was replaced as agriculture minister by Hiroshi Moriyama, after serving less than a year in the post.

Koichi Hagiuda, special adviser to the LDP president, has succeeded Kato as deputy chief cabinet secretary.