Yuko Obuchi, Chairperson of the LDP Election Commission, and Ayuko Kato, Minister of State for Low Fertility: The Ruined Road of the “Hereditary Daughters”

Drill Yuko” is making a comeback.

The cabinet reshuffle and LDP executive appointments that took place on September 13 baffled Nagata-cho.

In 2002, Yuko Obuchi (49) had to resign as Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry and Minister of State for Special Affairs of the Cabinet Office due to misstatements in a political fund balance report. Furthermore, during the investigation process, it was discovered that a computer had been destroyed with a drill. Two secretaries were convicted. Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki, who passed away in June at the age of 89, had been eyeing him as a candidate for party president. Some of the Diet members who were taken care of by his father, the late Keizo, have become veterans and remain with the party. They must have prepared this post as a final repayment for his kindness. To be honest, Yuko has no outstanding achievements. ……” (reporter from the political section of a national newspaper)

Why this timing? A source in the Heiseiken (Mogi Faction) says, “She was appointed because of her position as head of the election campaign committee.

Ms. Obuchi is a ‘young female Diet member with no particular enemies’ and the daughter of a former prime minister with a strong electoral record. She is notorious for the drilling incident, but she is well-liked in Nagata-cho. Her predecessor, Yutaka Moriyama (78), has done the difficult work of coordinating constituencies with the New Komeito Party, so her mission this time is to go around the tough constituencies as a “guest panda. It seems that the scenario drawn up by the bigwigs who are carrying Mr. Obuchi is to create “Yuko children” from among them as a backstage theme, and after being promoted to three positions and reentering the cabinet, to become the long-sought female prime minister.

This ″Yuko Personnel Change″ has led to the first cabinet appointment of Ayuko Kato, 44, the daughter of the late Koichi Kato. Political journalist Koichi Kakutani said.

In order to appoint Mr. Obuchi as chairman of the election committee, his predecessor, Mr. Moriyama, was shifted to the post of chairman of the General Affairs Committee, and the former chairman, Mr. Toshiaki Endo (73), was relieved of his post. Therefore, Mr. Kishida (Fumio Kishida, 66) brought Mr. Kato, who is a member of the Tanigaki Group like Mr. Endo, into the Cabinet as Minister of State in charge of the declining birthrate.

Both Mr. Obuchi and Mr. Kato are on the elite road paved by their late father’s influence, but their abilities are still unknown.

Both of them are not very proud of the secretaries and local legislators who have served them since their father’s generation. Mr. Obuchi’s ‘drilling incident’ was also under the direction of a veteran secretary. If Mr. Obuchi doesn’t successfully control them and make a track record, Mr. Obuchi’s path to the prime ministership will be cut off and Mr. Kato will end up with a ‘memorable cabinet appointment.

At the center of the “fresh faces” that the prime minister called “fresh faces” in his reshuffle were hereditary PRINCESS PRINCESSes. LDP, are you okay?

From the October 13-20, 2023 issue of FRIDAY