Second Kishida Cabinet (First Reshuffle)

On 6 August 2022 in Hiroshima, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced his decision to reshuffle his second cabinet on 10 August, after attending the 77th anniversary memorial ceremony of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American jet. The reshuffle had previously been planned for early September 2022. Since the end of COVID-19 pandemic in Japan by October 2021, Kishida explained that the purpose of the reshuffle was to focus on issues like the assassination of Shinzo Abe, as well as the climate change, global inflation, war in Ukraine, and Taiwan Strait tensions.[3]

The reshuffle was widely reported as a response to the local criticism of ties between Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Unification Church (UC), following the assassination of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on 8 July 2022.[3][4] The suspected shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, revealed that his mother went bankrupt for donating most of the family's wealth and assets to the UC. Although the suspect originally planned to target the leader of the UC, Hak Ja Han, he switched to Abe because he was unable to approach Han, and he considered Abe as one of the most influential supporters of the UC.[5] The revelation renewed local interest in the allegedly long-standing relationship between the LDP and the UC since Abe's maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi's tenure,[6] as well as accusations against the UC's practices of collecting donations fraudulently, so-called "spiritual sales".[7] Public opinions on Kishida's decision to hold a state funeral for Abe on 27 September were also divided.[8][9]

According to a poll conducted by NHK from 5 to 7 August, the approval rating of Kishida's previous cabinet was 46%, down by 13% from a similar poll taken three weeks prior. Also 82% of respondents were not satisfied by the lawmakers' explanations of their ties to the UC.[10]

Kishida stressed that the new cabinet would have all members closely examined with regard to their relationship with the UC,[3] but media reported that at least 30 members in the reshuffled cabinet were still related to the UC to various degrees.[11] One of the ministers who remained in office after this reshuffle, Daishiro Yamagiwa, received media scrutiny in particular for not disclosing his ties with the UC to the public before the reshuffle, as well as his ambiguous responses when being confronted by reporters about his ties to the UC.[12] Kishida accepted Yamagiwa's resignation on 24 October 2022 as the minister[13] following more evidences of Yamagiwa's ties to the UC surfaced and intense criticisms from the opposition parties in the parliament for his failure to remember his participation in events held by the UC and meetings with top UC officials, including the UC leader Hak Ja Han.[14]

After the cabinet reshuffle, a poll conducted from 20 to 21 August by Mainichi Shimbun showed that the approval rating of the new cabinet dropped to 36% by 16%, with 64% of respondents viewing the ties to the UC as a very serious problem.[15]

Kishida promised to cut ties with the UC[16] and help victims of manipulative sales by the UC.[17] Taro Kono, the minister of digital affairs who was also given the special mission for consumer affairs and food safety, established a spiritual sales review committee in the Consumer Affairs Agency on 29 August. This committee initially elected 8 experts in the UC matter including former prosecutor Shiori Kanno and Masaki Kito, a lawyer representing the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales which has been providing legal aid for victims and reporting on the anti-social issues of the UC since 1987.[18] The committee was scheduled to hold publicly-viewable weekly online meetings. All committee members offered suggestions for strengthening regulations or enacting preventive measures against spiritual sales.[19]

In December 2022 the Kishida government announced a $320bn increase in military spending, due in part to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[20][21]

Citation of this table: List of Second Kishida Cabinet (First Reshuffle) Members[23]

Second Kishida Cabinet (First Reshuffle)

Portfolio		Image	Minister		Term	Note
Prime Minister			Fumio Kishida	R	4 October 2021 – Present
Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications			Minoru Terada	R	10 August 2022 – 20 November 2022	[24]
			Takeaki Matsumoto	R	21 November 2022 – 13 September 2023	[25]
Minister of Justice			Yasuhiro Hanashi	R	10 August 2022 – 11 November 2022
			Ken Saitō	R	11 November 2022 – 13 September 2023	[26]
Minister for Foreign Affairs			Yoshimasa Hayashi	R	10 November 2021 – 13 September 2023	[27]
Minister of Finance Minister of State for Financial Services Minister in charge of Overcoming Deflation			Shun'ichi Suzuki	R	4 October 2021 – Present
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister in charge of Education Rebuilding			Keiko Nagaoka	R	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare			Katsunobu Kato	R	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries			Tetsuro Nomura	C	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Minister in charge of Industrial Competitiveness Minister for Economic Cooperation with Russia Minister in charge of the Response to the Economic Impact caused by the Nuclear Accident Minister of State for the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation			Yasutoshi Nishimura	R	10 August 2022 – Present
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister in charge of Water Cycle Policy Minister for the World Horticultural Exhibition Yokohama 2027			Tetsuo Saito	R	4 October 2021 – Present
Minister of the Environment Minister of State for Nuclear Emergency Preparedness			Akihiro Nishimura	R	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Minister of Defense			Yasukazu Hamada	R	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minister in charge of Mitigating the Impact of U.S. Forces in Okinawa Minister in charge of the Abductions Issue Minister in Charge of Promoting Vaccinations			Hirokazu Matsuno	R	4 October 2021 – Present
Minister for Digital Minister of State for Digital Reform Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform			Taro Kono	R	10 August 2022 – Present
Minister of Reconstruction Minister in charge of Comprehensive Policy Coordination for Revival from the Nuclear Accident at Fukushima			Kenya Akiba	R	10 August 2022 – 27 December 2022	[28]
			Hiromichi Watanabe	R	27 December 2022 – 13 September 2023
Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission Minister in charge of Building National Resilience Minister in charge of Territorial Issues Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform Minister of State for Disaster Management and Ocean Policy			Koichi Tani	R	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Minister in charge of Policies Related to Children Minister in charge of Cohesive Society Minister in charge of Women's Empowerment Minister in charge of Measures for Loneliness and Isolation Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate Minister of State for Gender Equality			Masanobu Ogura	R	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023
Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Minister in charge of New Capitalism Minister in charge of Startups Minister in charge of Measures for Novel Coronavirus Disease and Health Crisis Management Minister in charge of Social Security Reform			Daishiro Yamagiwa	R	10 August 2022 – 25 October 2022
			Shigeyuki Goto	R	25 October 2022 – 13 September 2023	[29]
Minister in charge of Economic Security Minister of State for Intellectual Property Strategy Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy Minister of State for Space Policy Minister of State for Economic Security			Sanae Takaichi	R	10 August 2022 – Present
Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs Minister of State for Regional Revitalization Minister of State for Regulatory Reform Minister of State for "Cool Japan" Strategy Minister of State for Ainu-Related Policies Minister in charge of Digital Garden City Nation Vision Minister for the World Expo 2025 Minister in charge of Administrative Reform			Naoki Okada	C	10 August 2022 – 13 September 2023

• 2022
• October 24 – Economic Revitalization Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa resigned and was replaced by Shigeyuki Goto.
• November 11 – Minister of Justice Yasuhiro Hanashi resigned and was replaced by Ken Saitō.[26]
• November 20 – Interior Minister Minoru Terada resigned and was replaced by Takeaki Matsumoto.[25]
• December 27 – Reconstruction Minister Kenya Akiba resigned and was replaced by Hiromichi Watanabe.[28]