Japan’s Premier Names Line of Succession

As expected, new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Friday named his chief Cabinet minister, Mikio Aoki, to act in his stead if he is incapacitated.

What was unexpected, however, was the rest of the batting order that Mori laid out for succession, in a move aimed at averting the confusion that occurred earlier this month when then-Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi fell into a coma.

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono was designated to take charge after Aoki, but a surprise selection was Construction Minister Masaaki Nakayama as the next in command.

“I don’t see any logic in it,” said Takashi Kiuchi, an economic advisor at the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan.

Meanwhile, bypassed in the top-five lineup was political heavyweight and Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, 81, the most experienced man in the Cabinet and the only one who has served as prime minister.

He wasn’t selected “probably because he’s already been prime minister,” Aoki said at a news conference.

The arrangement will hold only for this Cabinet rather than be set in stone like the United States’ defined order of succession. Japanese political commentators say this is because Cabinets are often composed of rival factions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and that the choice of a No. 2 is “situational.”

But Aoki defended the short-term nature of the move, saying, “I believe it is common sense that this will be decided when new Cabinets are formed.”

Left unclear was who will decide when the acting prime minister should take over. Just before Obuchi slipped into a coma, Aoki told reporters that Obuchi had left him in charge. But he later amended that statement to say that Obuchi had not directly requested him to take over.

Aoki stepped in to the post of acting prime minister for three days before Mori was officially elected.

Japan’s laws specify that the prime minister select a temporary replacement if incapacitated, but they give no other specifics.

Aoki said his pecking order was designated based on the Cabinet ministers’ legislative tenures, previous positions and “political party”--although, like Prime Minister Mori, all the members of the Cabinet hail from the LDP.

The other two ministers designated in the succession order are Trade Minister Takashi Fukaya and, finally, Defense Minister Tsutomu Kawara.