Ishiba to Name Moriyama as LDP Secretary-General

Tokyo, Sept. 28 (Jiji Press)--New Liberal Democratic Party President Shigeru Ishiba plans to name LDP General Council Chairman Hiroshi Moriyama, 79, as the ruling party's secretary-general, informed sources said Saturday.

Ishiba, 67, who was elected LDP leader Friday to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, also plans to appoint former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, 43, as new chairman of the LDP's Election Strategy Committee, while retaining Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, 63, in his current post.

Ishiba plans to ask former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, 75, to become LDP vice president and pick former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera as chairman of the LDP's Policy Research Council, the sources said.

On Monday, Ishiba will launch the LDP's new leadership team. He is slated to form his cabinet Tuesday after being confirmed as prime minister at an extraordinary parliamentary session earlier in the day.

In the wake of a slush funds scandal involving LDP factions, Ishiba believes that the new administration will need to be judged by the public at an early date, eyeing the possibility of dissolving the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, as early as within October.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]