Shigeru Ishiba was voted in as the 102nd prime minister of Japan at an extraordinary Diet session on Oct. 1 and faced immediate criticism from the opposition bloc.

He received 291 out of the 461 votes cast in the Lower House.

Ishiba was elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sept. 27, replacing Fumio Kishida, who decided not to seek re-election.

At a Lower House plenary session on Oct. 1, Junya Ogawa, secretary-general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, blasted Ishiba for announcing his plans to dissolve the Diet chamber on Oct. 9 for a snap election even before he became prime minister.

“It is an unprecedented and extremely unusual move,” Ogawa said. “There are constitutional questions, and we demand an apology and a retraction.”

Ishiba said Sept. 30 that he intends to call a Lower House election for Oct. 27.

Despite criticism from opposition parties, the Lower House plenary session voted in favor of closing the extraordinary Diet session on Oct. 9.

The Ishiba Cabinet will be officially inaugurated after investiture and attestation ceremonies for the prime minister and Cabinet ministers at the Imperial Palace on Oct. 1.

The lineup features close allies as well as defense experts who will push Ishiba’s national security agenda.

Although Ishiba has expressed support for a gender quota system, the number of female ministers in his Cabinet fell to two from a record-tying five in the Kishida Cabinet.

During campaigning for the LDP leadership contest, Ishiba, a former defense minister, promised to revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement and establish an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

New Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, 67, and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, 66, are veteran Lower House members who have both served as defense minister.

Ishiba picked two other individuals well-versed in defense issues to work closely with him.

Lower House member Akihisa Nagashima, 62, a former state minister of defense knowledgeable about the United States, was appointed a special adviser to the prime minister.

Akihiro Tsuchimichi, a former vice defense minister for international affairs, has been named executive secretary to the prime minister.

Tsuchimichi, 64, was a ministerial secretary for Ishiba when he was the defense chief.

Twelve Cabinet ministers, including Ishiba, do not belong to any LDP faction, accounting for 60 percent of all members of the new administration.

The average age of the Cabinet ministers is 63.6 years old, compared with 61.8 for the original Kishida Cabinet that was formed in October 2021.

The Cabinet does not include any lawmaker involved in the fund-raising scandal that engulfed the ruling party. No member of the LDP’s Abe faction, which was at the center of the scandal, received a Cabinet post.

Six of the 20 lawmakers who offered personal endorsements for Ishiba’s bid to run in the LDP presidential race gained ministerial portfolios.

Among them are Ryosei Akazawa, 63, minister in charge of economic revitalization, and Masaaki Taira, 57, minister for digital transformation.

A former member of the Ishiba faction, Akazawa has been Ishiba’s closest aide since the faction was disbanded in 2021.

Of the eight other contenders for the LDP presidency, Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63, has been reappointed as chief Cabinet secretary and Katsunobu Kato has been given the post of finance minister.

Junko Mihara, 60, minister for policies related to children, and education minister Toshiko Abe, 65, are the only female ministers in the Ishiba Cabinet.

Kishida, who enlisted five female ministers when he reshuffled his Cabinet in September, came under fire for appointing no women as state ministers or parliamentary vice ministers in an unprecedented move.

At the time, Ishiba said the early introduction of a quota system that would set aside a certain percentage of candidates or seats for women should be considered.

“We need to improve the current situation where a politician is not a profession that women want to enter,” he said.

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LINEUP OF ISHIBA CABINET

* Prime Minister:

Shigeru Ishiba, 67, Lower House, LDP

* Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications:

Seiichiro Murakami, 72, Lower House, LDP

* Justice Minister:

# Hideki Makihara, 53, Lower House, LDP

* Foreign Minister:

Takeshi Iwaya, 67, Lower House, LDP

* Finance Minister:

Katsunobu Kato, 68, Lower House, LDP

* Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology:

# Toshiko Abe, 65, Lower House, LDP

* Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare:

# Takamaro Fukuoka, 51, Upper House, LDP

* Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries:

# Yasuhiro Ozato, 66, Lower House, LDP

* Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry:

# Yoji Muto, 68, Lower House, LDP

* Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism:

Tetsuo Saito, 72, Lower House, Komeito

* Environment Minister:

# Keiichiro Asao, 60, Upper House, LDP

* Defense Minister:

Gen Nakatani, 66, Lower House, LDP

* Chief Cabinet Secretary:

Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63, Lower House, LDP

* Minister for Digital Transformation:

# Masaaki Taira, 57, Lower House, LDP

* Reconstruction Minister:

# Tadahiko Ito, 60, Lower House, LDP

* National Public Safety Commission Chairman:

# Manabu Sakai, 59, Lower House, LDP

* Minister for Policies Related to Children:

# Junko Mihara, 60, Upper House, LDP

* Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization:

# Ryosei Akazawa, 63, Lower House, LDP

* Minister in charge of Economic Security:

# Minoru Kiuchi, 59, Lower House, LDP

Minister for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs:

# Yoshitaka Ito, 75, Lower House, LDP

Note: Those marked with # are joining a Cabinet for the first time.