Hamada, a lower house lawmaker versed in national security issues, served as defence minister from 2008 to 2009 under then-prime minister Taro Aso. He will replace current defence minister Nobuo Kishi.
Similarly, Covid-19 response coordinator Katsunobu Kato is expected to serve as health, labour and welfare minister, a position he held twice under former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
The new cabinet, to be launched Wednesday, will face issues including inflation, the coronavirus pandemic, energy security and revisions to key national security documents this year.
Kishida took pains to distribute cabinet and key party positions evenly among competing Liberal Democratic Party factions.
“Unity within the government and the ruling parties is more important now than ever to overcome one of our most difficult postwar periods,” Kishida told reporters Tuesday.
Kishida has faced criticism over ruling party lawmakers’ ties to the Unification Church and his controversial decision to hold a state funeral for Abe.
Kishida will tap former economic and fiscal policy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura as the economy, trade and industry minister; Sanae Takaichi, now head of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, as minister for economic security; and Taro Kono, a former minister for administrative reform, as digital minister. Takaichi and Kono both ran in last year’s LDP leadership race, in which Kishida won.
Finance minister Shunichi Suzuki, foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and Daishiro Yamagiwa, minister for economic and fiscal policy, are set to remain in their posts. On the party side, Aso – now the LDP vice-president – will stay on, along with LDP secretary-general Toshimitsu Motegi.
The 19-member cabinet includes nine first-time appointees, among them Minoru Terada, an adviser to Kishida, as internal affairs minister; Yasunori Hanashi as justice minister; Keiko Nagaoka as education and technology minister; and Akihiro Nishimura as environment minister. Only two are women.
Koichi Hagiuda, the current trade and industry minister, will be tapped for the influential LDP policy chief position. Hagiuda is a member of the party’s largest faction, led by Abe until his assassination last month. He will work on building a party consensus on fiscal and national security policy.
The Abe and Aso factions lead in terms of representation with four members each, followed by those of Motegi and Kishida with three. Former LDP secretary-general Toshihiro Nikai’s faction, which encouraged Seiko Noda to run in the last LDP leadership race, has two members in the new cabinet. Hamada, who is affiliated with no faction, supported Noda as well.
Hiroshi Moriyama, head of a seven-member faction and a close associate of Nikai and former prime minister Yoshihide Suga, has been tapped to lead the LDP’s election strategy. The current holder of that post – Toshiaki Endo, a close associate of former prime minister Yoshiro Mori – will make a lateral move to head the party’s General Council.
Tetsuo Saito, a member of junior ruling coalition partner Komeito, will remain transport minister as requested by Komeito.