Photo/Illutration Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno speaks to reporters on Sept. 7 at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo. (Koichi Ueda)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to retain key Cabinet members and Liberal Democratic Party executives in his upcoming reshuffles, but he will add more women to the administration, sources said.

“I’m resolved to make a fresh and immediate start with the new team,” Kishida said on Sept. 10 in New Delhi, where he was attending Group of 20 meetings.

The new lineups will be announced as early as Sept. 13, he added.

Currently, only two of Kishida’s 19 Cabinet members are women. Female representation in Japanese politics, long a subject of criticism, will improve in the new lineup, the sources said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and LDP policy chief Koichi Hagiuda will remain at the posts or take other key positions, the sources said. They are both senior members of the LDP’s largest faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Taro Aso, vice president of the LDP, and Toshimitsu Motegi, the party’s secretary-general, are also expected to remain in their posts as Kishida seeks to maintain a power balance within the ruling party.

Aso, a former prime minister, heads the LDP’s second biggest faction, while Motegi, seen as a potential successor of Kishida, leads the third largest group.

Kishida, plagued by dwindling approval ratings following a series of errors with the government’s My Number identification system, pledged “drastic” policies and necessary funding to address the rising cost of living.

But he did not provide details about the measures or specify when he would call an extraordinary Diet session to discuss this and other issues.

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