Abe appoints new defence minister
Kosuke Takahashi, Tokyo - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
02 September 2014
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appointed Akinori Eto as defence minister, replacing Itsunori Onodera, on 3 September.
Abe also made Eto the minister responsible for national security legislation, a newly created position to achieve the premier's goal of legislating Japan's biggest post-war security policy change.
Eto, 58, served as parliamentary vice-minister in the Cabinet Office under Junichiro Koizumi between 2004 and 2005, and as senior vice-defence minister in Abe's first-term cabinet in 2007 and in Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet from 2007 to 2008. He also assumed this post in Abe's second-term cabinet from 2012 to 2013.
Most recently, he has served as chairman of the lower house's Committee on National Security from 2013 to the present.
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