Of the 22 senior vice ministers, two were appointed from the Upper House and the rest from the Lower House. The two Upper House members are in their second (six-year) term, and all but one of the Lower House senior vice ministers are survivors of four elections. Twenty are LDP members and the remaining two come from Komeito. This finely calibrated attention to political customs and mores (the Tanigaki faction, shut out from the cabinet, managed to gain just ne senior vice minister's post) contrasts with the Koizumi adminstration, where former ministers could be recruited to serve in sensitive posts. Back to business as usual in this respect.
The big surprise here is the one exception to the rule, the first-term Lower House member who vhas been exalted to one of the two, high-profile Ministry of Foreign Affairs vice minister posts. Even more astonishing is the fact that both MOFA vice ministers belong to the Kono faction, which the only Koizumi holdover MOFA minister Aso has just taken over as chairman. Mr. Aso is definitely getting the red carpet treatment. In a cabinet that is short on heavyweights, Mr. Aso stands out starkly as first among equals.
I can find little of interest at the more junior parliamentary secretary level. Two of the three Komeito secretaries are Soka University graduates. (One of the three Komeito senior vice ministers went to a Soka U. graduate school.) It looks like Soka University is establishing itself as the breeding grounds for the Komeito leadership. Thus, the sun rose from the east.
副大臣22名のうち、2名は参議院、残りすべてが衆議院から選ばれました。参議院の2名は、ともに6年2期目、そして衆議院の20名は、一人を除いて全員が4選議員です。20名は自民党、2名が公明党の議員です。政治的慣行に従ってかくも丁寧に配慮している（大臣ポストから排除された谷垣派は、かろうじて一つ確保した）のは、小泉政権では重要ポストに大臣経験者まで登用することがあったのと比べて,
憲政の常道に復帰したと言うべきでしょう。
驚くべきことがあるとすれば、とりわけ目立つポストである外務副大臣2名の一方に一期目の新人衆議院議員が抜擢されたことでしょう。しかも、もっと驚くべきことに、両外務副大臣が、ただ一人小泉内閣から留任した麻生外務大臣が会長になったばかりの河野派から選ばれたのです。麻生氏は、明らかに特別待遇を受けています。麻生氏は、これといった重鎮に乏しい内閣にあって、first among equals、一頭地を抜く存在です。
政務官レベルでは、これといった話題を見出すことができません。公明党の政務官3名のうち2名が創価大出身者です。（副大臣3名のうち1名が創価大の大学院に行きました。）どうやら、創価大学は、公明党幹部の養成学校の役割を確立しつつあるようです。当然と言えば当然ですが。
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