On the afternoon of November 10, Fumio Kishida was elected as the 101st Prime Minister of Japan and immediately formed a new cabinet. Kishida Cabinet 2.0 era has officially arrived. Compared with the original cabinet, Kishida's new cabinet has only one position change. However, this change in one position has aroused the vigilance of the conservatives of the Liberal Democratic Party headed by Abe.
After the election of the House of Representatives, Kishida took advantage of Abe's confidant Amari Akira 's defeat in the election and promoted the leader of the Takeshita faction and former Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to the position of Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party, thereby assigning the vacant foreign minister position to his absolute A confidant, Lin Fangzheng, the second in command of the Kishida faction.
Lin Fang is a well-known "China-knowledge faction" in Japanese politics. His father Hayashi Yoshiro and himself have both served as presidents of the "China-Japan Friendship Parliamentarians Alliance" and have led delegations to visit China many times. What is particularly noteworthy is that Hayashi Yoshiro's father once admitted that in the past historical period, due to wrong national policies, Japan carried out colonial rule and aggression against neighboring countries in Asia, causing immeasurable damage and pain to all countries.
Lin Fangzheng's "pro-China" background triggered opposition from conservatives such as Abe and Aso from the beginning. Japanese media reported that before appointing Lin Fumio, Fumio Kishida called Abe and Aso to seek understanding, but the two Everyone seems to be dissatisfied with this appointment, believing that Lin Fangzheng "may bring wrong information to the international community in terms of relations with China." But in the end, Kishida did not make any concessions to the two party bosses who helped him come to power, and still appointed Lin Fangzheng.
This may indicate that the honeymoon period of Abe and Fumio Kishida will be over. Abe is probably also very depressed. When he chose to help Kishida come to power, he actually believed that Fumio Kishida was more controllable and easier to control than Taro Kono, who was very popular among voters.
In the beginning, Kishida did reciprocate the favor of Abe and Aso who helped him rise to power. Almost all the high-level positions within the party were given to people from Abe and Aso, and Kishida sent none of his own people to take them. In the cabinet, important positions such as Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister of Finance were also given to these two bosses. To some extent, Kishida had previously been submissive to Abe and Aso.
But Amari Akira’s elimination gave Kishida Fumio a glimpse of the possibility of leveraging Abe’s control. Don't underestimate the change of a position in Kishida's cabinet. The position of foreign minister is crucial to Kishida. When it is difficult to make a difference in Japan's domestic fight against the epidemic and its economy, Kishida wants to establish his leadership authority and get rid of the shadow of the party bosses. The best way is undoubtedly to start with international affairs. Especially under the confrontation between China and the United States, Japan has been pushed to the forefront, and Japan-South Korea relations have also reached a freezing point in recent years. Coupled with the issues between Japan and Russia regarding the four northern islands, Kishida has too much room for maneuver. Now that Kishida has won the post of foreign minister, he is undoubtedly more powerful.
In addition, both Abe and Hayashi's constituencies are in Yamaguchi Prefecture. In the future, their constituencies may merge and become competitors. Kishida's arrangement of Lin Fangzheng to hold important positions is undoubtedly a provocation to Abe.
Abe may not have expected Kishida to be disobedient so quickly and try to get rid of his own control. After all, it is difficult to predict Amari Akira's election defeat. However, Abe clearly has his own style of play. At noon on the 11th, Abe had officially returned to the Hosoda faction (Seiwakai), the largest faction in the Liberal Democratic Party, and took office as the faction president. Although the Oda faction (which will be renamed the Abe faction after Abe becomes president) has shrunk its seats in the House of Representatives elections, it is still the largest faction within the Liberal Democratic Party. There are currently many people appointed by Abe among the senior leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party. It is foreseeable that Abe's influence within the party will not be underestimated in the future.
What should be more alarming is that although Abe no longer holds a government position, he has the idea to influence Japan's diplomatic situation. According to people familiar with the matter, Abe is planning to visit Taiwan next year in the name of the former Japanese Prime Minister. What is particularly noteworthy is that Abe also revealed his intention to visit the tomb of Lee Teng-hui in Taiwan.If Kishida really recruits Lin Fangzheng, a "China-knowledge faction", to ease relations with China, then Abe's move will undoubtedly be against Kishida and will restrict Abe's diplomatic space.
With the launch of Kishida Cabinet 2.0 and Abe taking charge of the largest faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, the confrontation between Kishida and Abe may have just begun.
