Shigeru Ishiba (67), president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was elected prime minister on the 1st.

New Prime Minister Ishiba became the 102nd Prime Minister by receiving a majority of votes in the Prime Minister nomination election held at the plenary sessions of the House of Representatives (House of Representatives) and the House of Councilors (Senate) this afternoon.

He is evaluated as having a relatively moderate perception of history, unlike other hard-line conservatives in the Liberal Democratic Party, such as not visiting Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals from the Pacific War are enshrined, and saying that Japan’s responsibility for the war must be faced squarely.

Accordingly, it is expected that the cooperative trend in Korea-Japan relations established by President Yoon Seok-yeol and former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be maintained during Ishiba’s administration.

However, given that he has advocated strengthening defense capabilities, there is a possibility that he will strongly push for a constitutional amendment to specify the Self-Defense Forces in the constitution, which could lead to conflict with neighboring countries, including Korea.

The Ishiba Cabinet was also officially launched at 8 PM on the same day after an appointment ceremony where Emperor Naruhito gave a letter of appointment to the Prime Minister and a cabinet certification ceremony.

Prime Minister Ishiba, a member of the fringe Liberal Democratic Party who opposed the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, formed a new cabinet with close lawmakers and non-factional figures.

Of the 20 cabinet members, including himself, 12 did not belong to the existing faction.

All lawmakers from the Abe faction, the largest group with many people involved in the Liberal Democratic Party’s “slush fund scandal” that broke out at the end of last year, were excluded from cabinet positions.

Additionally, 13 of the cabinet members have no previous experience as a cabinet member.

Prime Minister Ishiba, who himself served as defense minister, appointed four former defense ministers to his cabinet.

Former Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, who was the head of the campaign headquarters for the governor’s election campaign, was appointed as Foreign Affairs Minister, and former Defense Minister Ken Nakatani was appointed as Defense Minister.

Before retiring as Minister of Defense in September 2019, Foreign Minister Iwaya emphasized that “South Korea and Japan have various diplomatic problems, but when it comes to security, the solidarity between Korea and the United States and Japan is very important.”

In the position of Chief Cabinet Secretary, the government spokesperson, he retained Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, the former second-in-command of the Kishida faction and rival in the governorship election, who supported him in the runoff election.

With the inauguration of the cabinet, Japanese politics transitions to a general election system.

At his first press conference after taking office that night, Prime Minister Ishiba said, “It is important for the new regime to be judged by the public as early as possible,” and announced plans to dissolve the House of Representatives on the 9th and hold an early general election on the 27th.

In this case, the House of Representatives will be dissolved and an early general election will be held in the shortest period since the end of the Pacific War. Three years ago, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida dissolved parliament 10 days after taking office, which was the shortest record in history.

In the process of consultation with the opposition party before the vote, the Liberal Democratic Party proposed a schedule for the prime minister’s statement of conviction on the 4th, representative questions on the 7th and 8th, and a party leader’s debate on the 9th. However, the opposition party ignores the National Assembly and is missing the budget committee schedule, making it difficult to sufficiently discuss pending national affairs. He opposed it.

Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, mentioned the issue of the Liberal Democratic Party’s slush fund scandal and said, “I think they are just trying to put a lid on something that stinks,” and added, “We will win this House of Representatives election somehow.”

Prime Minister Ishiba’s original position was that in order to hold an early general election, it was necessary to provide the public with sufficient materials to make a decision.

Nevertheless, the reason for changing the position and trying to hold a general election as soon as possible appears to be due to the judgment that holding an election in a situation where public expectations have increased with the launch of a new cabinet is advantageous to the ruling party, whose approval rating has fallen to the point where it has fallen.

In Japan, which has a cabinet system, the prime minister’s right to dissolve the National Assembly is often used as a means of consolidating the foundation of the government by holding elections at an advantageous time, so it is also evaluated as ‘reporting of imputation’.

If the Liberal Democratic Party wins a landslide victory in the early general election, the foundation of Prime Minister Ishiba’s government will be solidified, but if the party fails to achieve proper results, there is room for the administration to be shaken from the beginning.

Reporter Jo Si-hyung jsh1990@wowtv.co.kr