The Yomiuri Shimbun
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has stayed silent since returning from a summer vacation Tuesday over whether he will soon reshuffle his Cabinet, prompting many in the ruling parties to circulate rumors and speculate about what is an increasing matter of interest.
The stir caused by Fukuda's silence included differing remarks by Liberal Democratic Party members in the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors about the timing of convening the next Diet session, though that issue would be closely connected to a possible Cabinet reshuffle.
Photo: Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, center, attends a meeting of Liberal Democratic Party executives at the party's headquarters in Tokyo on Tuesday.Fukuda attended a meeting of LDP executives Tuesday morning, in his first task after the six-day vacation. At the meeting, he appeared to choose his words carefully so as not to give any indication of having plans for a Cabinet reshuffle.
Fukuda only said: "Now, I must consider various affairs in a comprehensive manner. I want to hear party executives' opinions."
Many in the LDP had anticipated that Fukuda would be determined to reshuffle his Cabinet. One influential party lawmaker who had spoken on the phone with Fukuda during his vacation remarked: "The prime minister is not hesitant about reshuffling his Cabinet. Recently, he has shown clear expressions [of intent]."
Photo: LDP Secretary General Bunmei Ibuki discusses the possibility of convening the next Diet session in late August, speech in Osaka, July 24.Therefore, the LDP members who attended Tuesday's meeting suggested they felt they might have been misled.
When reporters asked whether he had arrived at a decision about whether he plans to reshuffle the Cabinet, Fukuda mystified them by saying: "I did nothing. I may just have been lazy."
Many LDP members have urged Fukuda to give a boost to his Cabinet with a reshuffle partly because Cabinet approval ratings did not recover after the Group of Eight summit meeting earlier this month in Toyakocho, Hokkaido.
Party factions and members in the upper house caucus already have begun compiling lists of recommendations for Cabinet posts.
Regarding Fukuda's post-vacation silence about a Cabinet reshuffle, LDP Secretary General Bunmei Ibuki said to reporters, "If he does [the reshuffle], he may do it as a surprise move."
But some in the LDP assumed Fukuda had postponed the decision, with one saying, "The prime minister may want to watch the mood in the ruling parties and the likely reaction of the Democratic Party of Japan for a while."
If Fukuda continues to hold an ambiguous attitude, it is likely an increasing number of ruling party members will become irritated and dissatisfied.
Fukuda's ambiguous attitude over whether to reshuffle his Cabinet had caused confrontation inside the LDP about when the next extraordinary Diet session will convene.
Hidehisa Otsuji, chairman of the LDP upper house caucus, indicated at a press conference Tuesday that the Diet session can start in September by saying, "For the upper house, there is no need to hurry."
But Ibuki proposed convening the next Diet session in late August, during his talks with Fukuda on Tuesday in the Prime Minister's Office.
After the meeting, Ibuki tried to pressure upper house colleagues by saying to reporters, "If the session starts [in the second half of] September, Diet schedules will be too tight and we won't [be able to] do what we need to do."
About the timing of the start of the next Diet session, Fukuda said Tuesday evening, "I can't spend much time deciding it." But a date still had not been set for his meeting with New Komeito Chief Representative Akihiro Ota to confirm the ruling camp's Diet affairs schedules.
(Jul. 24, 2008)
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