Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (Liberal Democratic Party President) will begin reshuffling her cabinet and appointing party executives in mid-September. What are the key points of this personnel change, which will be the first since taking office? We asked Izuru Makihara, a professor of political science at the University of Tokyo, to evaluate the government's management, which will soon enter its second year.
Prime Minister Takaichi talks about administration personnel, talks with Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara for over two and a half hours
-How is the Prime Minister managing his government?
He is managing a government unlike any previous prime minister. There are two characteristics. One is not to form a team. It is one-person politics, where one person reads (materials), one person thinks, one person writes sentences, and one person sends messages. The other is the well-thought-out unilateral transmission of information. It's "politics to say what you want to say." It's a great success, but sometimes it's not what we want to hear at all.
-Some have pointed out problems with schedule management.
This is not the case at all in the world of the second Abe administration. So it gets messy. In the Abe administration, bureaucrats in the prime minister's office tied up the cabinet, but the prime minister's approach is to maintain relationships with individual cabinet members. If done well, it could become something similar to a British-style cabinet government, but the prime minister is probably just telling his cabinet members to ``do it properly'' without any discussion.
-Cabinet approval rating is still at a high level.
She is the first female prime minister in constitutional history and is not a second-generation member of parliament. I have hopes that this will open up some kind of hole. On the other hand, it has become clear that there are no words that can be used to empathize with the grief of disaster victims and others. I can't do diplomacy at all. The prime minister's office is not taking any action at all due to US sanctions against Tomoko Akane, director of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
-What is your evaluation of the coalition government between the Liberal Democratic Party and Japan Restoration Party?
The Meiji Restoration will drive towards the Prime Minister's weak points. Although it is a so-called cause of confusion, it has meaning for the prime minister in that it forces the Liberal Democratic Party to allocate (political) resources to quell the chaos. If there is no confusion (due to his relationship with the party), he will not be able to maintain his pace as prime minister. There is a strong affinity between the prime minister and the Meiji Restoration.
-This is different from the coalition government of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito Party.
When you look at politics in terms of crispness and breakthrough power, it's quite attractive. However, there is no consideration for the weak or the viewpoint of helping the weak that Komeito had. Therefore, when the prime minister and the Meiji Restoration get along, they become absorbed in topics that have no bearing on people's lives, such as the ``deputy capital'' law and the bill to reduce the number of members of the House of Representatives, as seen in the final stages of the special Diet session. I think the reason why support rates have not increased even after deciding to cut the consumption tax is because people can see through that.
-A government reshuffle is approaching.
When the administration took office, there were some things left over from the previous administration. In reality, this should be the start of the Takaichi administration in the truest sense. If the government does not move up a gear through reforms, it could stall. The prime minister explains his achievements on X (formerly Twitter), but does not talk about the future. Without new policies, the government will not last long.
