TOKYO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Japan's presumptive prime minister Yoshihide Suga, following his landslide win in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential vote a day earlier, picked veteran lawmakers to assume top posts in the party's new executive lineup.
Most notably, Suga opted to retain the services of LDP heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai in the key post of secretary-general.
Hiroshi Moriyama, another LDP veteran, will stay in his post as Diet Affairs Committee chairperson.
Sources with knowledge of the matter said both Nikai and Moriyama provided the most support to Suga during his LDP presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, Tsutomu Sato, a former communications minister, has been appointed as general council chairperson, the top role in the ruling party's decision making body, while Hakubun Shimomura, a former education minister, will remain in his post as Policy Research Council chairperson.
Taimei Yamaguchi, meanwhile, head of the Party Organization and Campaign Headquarters, was picked as Election Strategy Committee chairperson.
Seiko Noda and Tamayo Marukawa, two females, were selected as the party's executive acting secretary-general and head of its Public Relations Headquarters, respectively.
Sources said, while both extremely capable lawmakers, the move to choose two females may have also been partly to answer critics of the LDP election campaign that saw no female lawmakers enter the race, despite the government's supposed push for more females to be promoted to top roles in business and politics.
Suga filled the key posts in the new-look LDP leadership with veteran lawmakers from the five intraparty factions that supported him in his winning leadership race, guaranteeing his place as the nation's next prime minister to be announced at an extraordinary Diet session on Wednesday. Enditem
