By KOHEI MORIOKA/ Staff Writer
August 18, 2023 at 17:38 JST
Ryu Shionoya speaks at an Aug. 17 meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Koichi Ueda)
The Liberal Democratic Party’s largest faction, once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, approved a new group leadership structure, but the decision is already causing disgruntlement among some senior members.
The faction with 100 members could not decide on a new chairman to replace Abe, who was assassinated in July 2022.
Instead, the faction on Aug. 17 named Ryu Shionoya as “zacho,” a post that can be translated as group head but falls short of the chairman title.
Shionoya will be assisted by six or more members of what will be called an executive board. Five of the likely members, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and Koichi Hagiuda, the LDP policy chief, had said they should be allowed to manage the faction as a group.
After the faction meeting, Shionoya told reporters that no names were submitted as candidates for faction chairman.
“We still must manage the faction as best we can,” he said.
Shionoya had been acting faction co-leader with Hakubun Shimomura, a former education minister. But Shimomura is not expected to be named to the executive board.
After the Aug. 17 meeting, Shimomura expressed his displeasure to close associates.
Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister who also once headed the faction, is said to have given his consent to the new arrangement.
Shionoya will decide on the members of the executive board, but the new structure leaves open the possibility of a confrontation between the board and those close to Shimomura.
Faction members had called for a new chairman to lead negotiations for posts when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffles his Cabinet and the LDP executive lineup in September.
But instead of a chairman, the faction now has a group leadership structure. The meeting decided to keep the Abe faction name.
One faction member with ministerial experience said: “No decision has been made on the main issue and there is no sound struggle for power. The other LDP factions will laugh at us.”
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