Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, front center, and his Cabinet members pose for a photo at his official residence in Tokyo on Aug. 10. (Koichi Ueda)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering shaking up the Cabinet and the executive lineup of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party possibly in early 2023, multiple government officials said on Nov. 22.

The prime minister is aiming to rebuild his administration after effectively sacking three Cabinet ministers in about a month, they said.

According to senior government officials, Kishida wants to concentrate on passing the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2022 and revising three key national security policy documents through the end of this year.

He will then consider reshuffling his Cabinet early next year or in spring, they said.

If the reshuffle is carried out at the beginning of the new year, the prime minister is expected to attend the start of the ordinary Diet session with the new lineup.

The Diet next spring is expected to pass the government’s budget for fiscal 2023, after which the ordinary Diet session will enter the second half of deliberations.

Although the LDP easily won the Upper House election in July, Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet and LDP executive lineup in August.

Relations between Cabinet ministers and the Unification Church, officially known as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, had started to surface. Kishida also came under fire for agreeing to hold a state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

But even after the new lineups were announced, the approval ratings for Kishida’s Cabinet continued to slide.

Kishida in October effectively dismissed Daishiro Yamagiwa as economic revitalization minister after repeated reports surfaced about his connections with the Unification Church.

His slow reaction in dealing with Yamagiwa and other personnel issues fueled the decline of the Cabinet’s approval rating to a record low.

Yasuhiro Hanashi resigned as justice minister over remarks that were criticized as making light of capital punishment, and Minoru Terada was ousted as internal affairs minister over political funding scandals.

Kenya Akiba, the reconstruction minister, has also come under scrutiny over his political fund reports.

Sources said Kishida is thinking about shaking up the LDP lineup to address the lack of coordination between the prime minister’s office and senior party officials over Diet affairs.

However, objections to such an internal change have been voiced from both the prime minister’s office and the LDP.

“We should concentrate on producing results,” a senior LDP official said.

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