Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is banking on female politicians to extend his reign as Japan’s leader, sources said, but it remains unclear whether this strategy can improve the dismal ratings of his government.

Kishida appointed five women to his reshuffled Cabinet on Sept. 13, a number that ties the record set by the Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi in April 2001 and the Abe Cabinet in September 2014.

“I expect them to give full play to their sensibilities and capacities to empathize,” Kishida told a news conference on the night of Sept. 13.

Kishida hopes the increased presence of women in his administration will buoy the Cabinet approval ratings and allow him to dissolve the Lower House for a snap election as early as this year, sources said.

“The prime minister put together (the Cabinet reshuffle plan) so that he can play the dissolution card whenever he wants,” said a mid-ranking lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Kishida expects that a victory in a Lower House election this year or in 2024 will heighten his chances for re-election as LDP president in autumn next year, the sources said.

When asked about plans to dissolve the Lower House at the Sept. 13 news conference, Kishida said he has nothing to say at the moment.

Still, the prime minister is carefully analyzing the trend of public opinion, the sources said.

“A dissolution (of the Lower House) is always on my mind,” Kishida has told his aides. “It will come after personnel changes and economic measures are done.”

An Asahi Shimbun survey conducted in August showed that the Kishida Cabinet approval rating dropped for the third straight month to 33 percent, the second-lowest level since he became prime minister in October 2021.

The disapproval rating rose to 54 percent from 50 percent in July.

The five female Cabinet members include Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Ayuko Kato, minister in charge of policies related to raising children and minister for measures to halt the declining birthrate.

Kishida also named Yuko Obuchi, a daughter of former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, as chair of the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee, one of the senior party posts, on the same day.

“I expect her to play an active role as one of the party’s top campaigners in elections,” he said.

But Obuchi could end up being a problem for the prime minister.

She has been dogged by criticism for her lack of explanation about a money-in-politics scandal from nearly a decade ago.

In 2014, Obuchi was forced to step down as industry minister only about one month and a half at the post when questionable accounting at her political organization came to light.

Her former secretary was convicted of violating the Political Fund Control Law.

Obuchi gave a public explanation about the scandal only once, at a news conference in her constituency in Gunma Prefecture, a year after the controversy surfaced.

“I feel morally responsible if I have been unable to fully communicate (about what occurred),” Obuchi told a news conference on Sept. 13.

A veteran LDP lawmaker said, “I am worried how the past issue will affect the situation now that it has come under closer scrutiny.”

Kensuke Takayasu, a political scientist at Waseda University, said it is meaningful that Kishida has appointed five women to the Cabinet.

The foreign minister and the minister for children-related policies and measures for declining birthrate, among others, have an important responsibility for articulating government policies on the international stage, he said.

But Takayasu said the positive impact of Obuchi’s appointment could be limited if Kishida is relying on her as a symbol of promoting female politicians because she is privileged as a second-generation politician.

And there’s also the fact that her former secretary was found guilty in the political fund scandal, Takayasu said.

HAGIUDA’S CHURCH TIES

Kishida considered appointing Koichi Hagiuda, a close ally to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as chief Cabinet secretary in the reshuffle on Sept. 13, sources said.

But Hagiuda was left out of the Cabinet due to his previous ties to the Unification Church, which has come under intense criticism for demanding huge donations from its followers, they said.

Still, Kishida retained Hagiuda as chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council.

Kishida planned to forge closer ties with the Abe faction, the largest in the LDP, by adding Hagiuda, a key figure in the 100-member group, to the Cabinet.

Hagiuda also has the confidence of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who still wields a strong influence over the Abe faction even after resigning from the Diet in 2012.

After returning to Tokyo from the G-20 summit in India, Kishida met with Hagiuda in the morning of Sept. 11. Hagiuda was called into the prime minister’s office from a back entrance.

Kishida told Hagiuda that he was considering appointing him to chief Cabinet secretary or keeping him as the ruling party’s policy chief, sources said.

But the prime minister also said some people are concerned about Hagiuda’s past ties to the Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the sources said.

The chief Cabinet secretary, as the government’s chief spokesman, attends news conferences daily.

“I told the prime minister that reporters will definitely grill him over the issue of the Unification Church,” an aide said.

Hirokazu Matsuno, who was retained as chief Cabinet secretary, is also an influential member of the Abe faction.

Kishida was aware that Hagiuda could become an overwhelmingly powerful figure in the Abe faction if he assumed the post of chief Cabinet secretary, sources said.

“It is not good if we tilt the balance of power within the Abe faction,” Kishida told an aide.

When Kishida met again with Hagiuda at LDP headquarters in the afternoon of Sept. 11, he did not discuss personnel changes, sources said.

That night, Kishida called Hagiuda over the phone and asked him to remain as the party policy chief.