Photo/Illutration Shigeyuki Goto, former health minister, on Oct. 25 after he was tapped to succeed Daishiro Yamagiwa as state minister in charge of economic revitalization (Koichi Ueda)

Former health minister Shigeyuki Goto on Oct. 25 was set to become state minister in charge of economic revitalization, replacing Daishiro Yamagiwa, who resigned the previous day over his connections to the Unification Church.

“I decided to ask (Goto) to take over the job for three reasons: his ample political experience, his high skills of explanation, and his passion for economic and social reform,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on the morning of Oct. 25. “I believe he can hit the ground running.”

Goto, 66, will officially assume the post after an attestation ceremony to be held at the Imperial Palace later in the day.

On the evening of Oct. 24, Yamagiwa submitted his resignation letter to Kishida at the prime minister’s office, saying he would take responsibility for causing trouble to the administration.

Kishida and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party remain under heavy criticism from the public over party lawmakers’ ties to the church, now formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Yamagiwa came under fire because he repeatedly feigned ignorance over the issue and would only acknowledge his relations to the church when clear evidence was presented to him.

But his resignation will not end the controversy concerning the church.

Goto, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, won his first Diet seat in 2000, endorsed by the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan.

He joined the LDP in 2003 and has been elected to the Lower House seven times representing Nagano’s No. 4 electoral district.

Goto was also deputy to Kishida when he was chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council.

Although Goto is not a member of any LDP faction, he served as acting secretary-general of Kishida’s camp in the election for party president in 2021.

Goto has expertise in economic and social security areas, especially pension policy. He joined the Cabinet as the health minister when Kishida took office in October 2021.

He also served as the “command tower” for measures to fight the novel coronavirus this year when Japan was experiencing its seventh wave of infections.

Katsunobu Kato replaced Goto as health minister in the Cabinet reshuffle in August this year.

Goto will be tested at his new post when the government compiles a comprehensive economic package mainly to combat soaring consumer prices due at the end of this month.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno stressed on the morning of Oct. 25 that the government will ensure there would be no delays in the economic policies set under Yamagiwa.

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