Takaichi Reveals Plans for Filling LDP Posts on Social Media; Says She Wants to See Major Changes to Tax Commission

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:09 JST, October 13, 2025

New Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi on Sunday made several posts to the social media platform X about her aims and guiding principles in choosing people to fill the party’s top leadership posts.

On the first post, made shortly after 1:00 p.m., she stated that in general, she would seek to put “the right people in the right positions” when choosing people for party jobs, including executive positions.

Four and half hours later, Takaichi posted again, revealing that she directed LDP’s policy research council chairperson Takayuki Kobayashi, who has authority over the LDP’s research commission on the tax system, to “drastically change the way the commission is run.”

She went on to say that she would aim to reform the tax commission so that “lawmakers who are elected and sent to the Diet as ‘representatives of all citizens’ can freely and openly debate the direction of tax policy,” rather than “having its leadership filled solely by tax experts from the finance ministry.”

Takaichi has decided to appoint former LDP policy research council chairperson Itsunori Onodera as the new chairperson of the tax commission, replacing current chair Yoichi Miyazawa, who is the former minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and originally worked in the finance ministry.