Photo/Illutration Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, at a news conference in Tokyo on Sept. 13 (Kei Kobayashi)

Opposition parties are targeting scandal-tainted politicians in an attempt to gain political traction after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet and changed the ruling party leadership.

Akira Koike, who heads the Japanese Communist Party’s secretariat, took a dig at Kishida’s self-described “ability to listen” after the new administration was formed.

“While the government has been called upon to shift from policies criticized by the public, the Cabinet lineup shows that it does not have an ear (for the voices of the people),” Koike said.

He was alluding to Kishida’s decision to retain Taro Kono as minister for digital transformation who is in charge of the heavily criticized My Number personal identification system.

The system has been plagued by glitches and errors, and calls have heightened to put on hold the government’s plan to phase out health care insurance cards and replace them with My Number cards by autumn next year.

Kono will continue to be responsible for a comprehensive review of the system.

Four ministers of the new Cabinet had previously admitted to links with the Unification Church in an Asahi Shimbun survey last year and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s own investigation.

Among them is education minister Masahito Moriyama, who will be responsible for the government’s response to its investigation into shady fund-collection and other financial practices of the church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

“I appointed them on the grounds that they now do not have any relationship at all (with the church),” Kishida told a news conference on Sept. 13.

However, a mid-ranking lawmaker of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan voiced indignation at Moriyama’s appointment at a critical time when the government is considering seeking a court order to dissolve the church as early as next month.

A representative of Moriyama’s office told The Asahi Shimbun that the lawmaker has no relationship with the Unification Church and only attended an event of an affiliated organization once in March last year.

“His judgment in the minister’s job will not be affected,” the representative said.

The three others with previous ties to the church are Junji Suzuki, minister for internal affairs and communications, Environment Minister Shintaro Ito and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara.

Koichi Hagiuda, who was retained as chairman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, is said to have had a close relationship with the Unification Church.

CDP Secretary-General Katsuya Okada told a news conference on Sept. 13 that Hagiuda would have created a bigger problem if Kishida had included him in the Cabinet.

At a separate news conference the same day, Hagiuda said he has already severed ties with the church and has provided sufficient explanations.

However, a mid-ranking Lower House member of junior coalition partner Komeito said the public will not be convinced unless he clearly explains himself before a TV camera.

The JCP’s Koike also said Yuko Obuchi, who was appointed chair of the LDP’s Election Strategy Committee, should give a full explanation about a political fund scandal in which her former secretary was convicted of violating the Political Fund Control Law.

Obuchi’s appointment “shows that the LDP is making little of the issue of ‘money in politics,’” Koike said.

Nobuyuki Baba, head of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), said Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet to win the LDP’s leadership election in autumn next year by picking lawmakers recommended by intra-party factions based on the age and number of times elected to the Diet.

“Meticulous attention was paid to every little detail of the Cabinet lineup,” Baba said sarcastically.

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