Prime Minister Takaichi will make his first cabinet reshuffle, deciding to cooperate with the Meiji Restoration.

On the 17th, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (President of the Liberal Democratic Party) will carry out his first cabinet reshuffle since taking office. The plan is to retain Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara (57), Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Mogi (70), Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama (67), and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi (45) to maintain the ``skeleton'' of the Cabinet. Arrangements will also be made to accept House of Councilors member Toshiharu Furukawa (63), who is recommended by the Liberal Democratic Party in the House of Councilors as a candidate for the Cabinet. The second Takaichi reshuffled cabinet will be inaugurated on the same day.

With this reshuffle, the Japan Restoration Association will shift to cooperation within the cabinet, and its former secretary-general, Hiroshi Nakatsukasa (70), a member of the House of Representatives, will enter the cabinet for the first time. The focus will be on the treatment of Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (65), who competed with the prime minister in last year's Liberal Democratic Party presidential election.

On the 16th, the prime minister met with Ishin representative Hirofumi Yoshimura (Governor of Osaka Prefecture) at the prime minister's office and formally requested that he join the Cabinet. Yoshimura agreed, ``I will join the Cabinet, share responsibility, and move policy forward.'' Both men confirmed their intention to pass bills related to the consumption tax cut and the reduction in the number of members of the House of Representatives at an extraordinary Diet session to be convened in early October.

After the meeting, Yoshimura held a press conference, emphasizing his determination for Cabinet cooperation, saying, ``Regulatory reform and administrative and fiscal reform are our strengths.We will play a role where the Liberal Democratic Party alone cannot do it.''