New PM Shigeru Ishiba gets to decide who gets the top government and party jobs, but a little cunning would have helped avoid decisions sure to divide the LDP. Published on By No doubt about it, is an honest man. Making personnel decisions is one of the most difficult jobs in a company or government agency.
Companies and government offices that do it poorly will decline and eventually disappear. That is precisely why elite staff are assigned to the human resources department in large companies and national government agencies. Still, it is impossible always to have personnel decisions that everyone can agree on.
Moreover, , as Japan's political world is colloquially referred to, doesn't have a personnel department. As a result, who gets the jobs of ministers and party executives is decided solely by whoever is in power at the time. Naturally, politicians who get the short end of the stick and are relegated to political Siberia harbor intense resentments.
After enduring many hardships, it is understandable why a politician who has long been slighted but finally manages to seize power, would wonder whether he should just let go of his grudge. As soon as he became prime minister, Ishiba appointed to a key Cabinet position. That is the same Murakami who was punished by the ruling (LDP) for calling former Prime Minister a "traitor" after his assassination.
Furthermore, Ishiba did not appoint a single member of the former to any of the top four party jobs. That is even though they .
