Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seeking a fresh start after his party's devastating election defeat last month, said yesterday he planned to reshuffle his Cabinet on August 27.

In a stunning defeat in a July 29 election, Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner lost their majority in the parliament's upper house, as voters outraged at scandals and bungled pension records turned to the opposition.

Abe did not have to step down because the coalition has a huge majority in the powerful lower house, but his decision to cling to his post has prompted criticism even within the LDP.

Asked whether a Cabinet shuffle would be conducted on August 27 as has been widely speculated, Abe told reporters: "I'm basically thinking in that direction."

Abe, who departed yesterday for a week-long trip to Indonesia, India, and Malaysia, is also seen likely to reshuffle LDP executive posts on the same day.

"I would like to think about this thoroughly while taking into consideration various standpoints," Abe said about the Cabinet reshuffle.

While Abe steered clear of any specifics, the Yomiuri newspaper reported that LDP policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa and former foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura were among the lawmakers who may join the new Cabinet.

Members of Machimura's faction within the LDP are pushing for him to become the new chief Cabinet secretary, the daily said, adding that Abe was thought to be considering Nakagawa as a possible candidate for farm minister or an economic-related Cabinet post.

Abe's first stop during his southeast and south Asian tour is Indonesia, where he and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are expected to sign a free trade agreement.

The prime minister heads to India tomorrow.

Before leaving for Malaysia on Thursday, Abe is also slated to stop in Kolkata, West Bengal, to meet with the son of Radhabinod Pal, a judge from India who sat on the bench at the post-World War II Tokyo war crimes' trials.

Pal called the war crimes trials victor's justice and voted for the innocence of those standing trial, the only one of the tribunal's 11 judges to do so. The judgment has endeared him to many Japanese nationalists.

(China Daily August 20, 2007)