Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
TOKYO -- Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is slated to become chairman of the Hosoda faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as early as Nov. 11, it has been learned.
The appointment comes as the current chairman, former LDP Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda, 77, is to be selected to the post of speaker of the House of Representatives on Nov. 10. Senior officials of the Hosoda faction will hold an ad-hoc meeting as early as Nov. 9 to approve a proposal to make 67-year-old Abe the next chairman. The appointment will be formally decided upon at a Nov. 11 general assembly of the faction, turning the Hosoda bloc into the "Abe faction."
The plan was disclosed Nov. 8 by multiple sources with ties to the Hosoda faction. Prior to the launch of the second Abe administration in 2012, Abe had left the Machimura bloc, which was the predecessor faction to the Hosoda bloc. If he becomes chairman of the Hosoda faction, it will have been some nine years since he was last a member.
After Abe stepped down as prime minister in 2020, there had been voices in the Hosoda faction calling for his return. In the LDP presidential election in September of this year, he showed great influence on the faction, convincing many of its members to support Sanae Takaichi, behind whom he had revealed he would be putting his weight. Takaichi subsequently assumed the post of LDP policy chief. Within the LDP, there are murmurs that Abe's return to his original faction is evidence of "his aspirations to become a kingmaker."
Hosoda has been head of the faction since December 2014, when his predecessor, Nobutaka Machimura, became the lower house speaker. The Hosoda faction was founded in 1979 with former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda at its helm. At one point, Abe's father, former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, served as its chairman. It is now the largest faction in the party.
(Japanese original by Shuhei Endo, Political News Department)
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