TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th November, 2022) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday rejected information about possible upcoming reshuffles in his cabinet of ministers amid a series of dismissals of high-ranking officials involved in various scandals.
On Monday, Japanese newspaper The Mainichi reported that Kishida was considering the second cabinet reshuffle in the last six months. According to the report, the reshuffle in the government, as well as in the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, headed by Kishida, may take place between the end of December after consideration of the draft budget for the next fiscal year and the beginning of the regular session of the Japanese parliament in January 2023.
"I am not considering this at all," the Kyodo news agency quoted Kishida as saying.
On Sunday, Kishida accepted the resignation of Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Minoru Terada after a funds-related scandal. Terada has become the third minister in Kishida's cabinet to be dismissed in the past few weeks.
In mid-November, the Japanese prime minister dismissed Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi over his controversial statements about duties related to signing death sentences, which sparked criticism among Japan's opposition parties. Economic Revitalization Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa resigned at the end of October over his ties with the Unification Church, which has been in the spotlight following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The disapproval rating of Kishida's government edged up 0.5 percentage points to 43.5% in November, exceeding approval for the third month straight, a public survey held by Japanese pollster Jiji showed on November 18. Only 27.7% of those sampled by the pollster said they approved of the cabinet's performance, up 0.3 points from October. The poll was conducted among 2,000 adults from November 11-14.
