Abe to reshuffle cabinet, key posts likely unchanged

Half of the current 18 cabinet members will retain their portfolios, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and Finance Minister Taro Aso, according to media reports. Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will also stay on.

In the cabinet reshuffle, Abe will create a new ministerial post to honor his commitment to establish "a society in which all 100 million people can be active." The new post is part of Abe's new three policies of the "Abenomics 2.0" complex.

The reshuffle follows a big dive in the approval rating for the prime minister in recent months after the Abe government and ruling bloc forcibly enacted controversial security legislations which are widely seen as unconstitutional.