Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will appoint former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hideki Murai as chairperson of the State Relations Committee, and will also arrange for Secretary-General Hiroshi Nakatsuka to join the cabinet from the Meiji Restoration.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (Liberal Democratic Party President) has begun making arrangements to appoint former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hideki Murai (46) as chairman of the party's national relations committee in a personnel change to be held on the 16th. In the subsequent cabinet reshuffle, it was arranged that Secretary-General Hiroshi Nakatsukasa (70) would join the cabinet from the Nippon Ishin no Kai, which forms a coalition government. This was announced by a ruling party official.

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The chairperson of the Liberal Democratic Party Committee is normally appointed by someone with cabinet experience, but if he is appointed as a member of the Cabinet, this would be an unusual choice. The prime minister appears to be hoping to bring about reforms by appointing Murai, who is active in reforming the Diet.

Ishin has been in a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party since October last year, but it was an "extra-cabinet cooperation" with no cabinet ministers. By appointing ministers, the government will assume more responsibility for running the government.

Murai was elected to the Saitama 1st District of the House of Representatives six times. A former finance bureaucrat, he served as an advisor to the prime minister in the Kishida cabinet, as well as deputy chief cabinet secretary, the liaison between the government and the prime minister's office. Since then, he has been involved in negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties in the Diet, including as the ruling party's lead director on the House Steering Committee.

The special session of the Diet, which will be convened in early October, will focus on bills related to the consumption tax reduction on food products and the bill to reduce the number of members of the House of Representatives. Murai provoked a backlash during the recent special Diet session when he criticized the opposition party's refusal to deliberate on the matter, calling it ``outdated,'' and his ability as a coordinator is likely to be questioned.

Nakatsukasa was elected to the Osaka 11th Ward of the House of Representatives three times and was appointed party secretary-general in August last year. He has previously served as mayor of Hirakata in Osaka Prefecture and as a member of the prefectural assembly, and his experience in administration and party management is thought to have been highly evaluated.