Abe said he was preparing to name "a Cabinet which will continue reforms and secure economic growth" following a major reversal July 29 in elections to the upper house of parliament, the House of Councillors.
Analysts contend that one of the true reasons for the reshuffle, aside from general voter dissatisfaction engendered by a sclerotic economy, involves the unpardonable mistakes recently made in registering pensioners, a rapidly growing segment of the population in an ageing Japan, for old-age payments
Abe named his foreign minister, Taro Aso, to a top party post, making him second in line. He named Nobutaka Machimura, the former head of the Foreign Ministry under Junichiro Koizumi, to replace him.
Fukushiro Nukaga, who headed up the Defense Ministry in 2005-2006, was appointed finance minister.
Of possibly greatest significance, an anti-North Korean hardliner, Masahiko Komura, was named to the top Defense Ministry post.
Japan's defense establishment has been in turmoil ever since North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, leading to internal debates over the wisdom of maintaining a voluntary post-war constraint on the strength of the Japanese military.
Abe currently enjoys no more than 20 percent support nationwide, and he has been under considerable pressure to appoint competent ministers to replace supposed cronies he staffed the government with when he was elected last year.
At 52, he is the youngest premier in post-war Japan, and he has defied calls for his resignation from a broad spectrum of opposition and party voices, vowing to pursue reforms he swore to bring to Japan's antiquated U.S.-inspired Constitution, including a ban on military force projection overseas.
The government's recent misfortunes come on the heels of last month's resignation of Japan's foreign minister, Fumio Kyuma, who unleashed a storm of controversy when he suggested that America's atomic bombing of the home islands was "unavoidable."
