Your faction head employment agency

They are calling it habatsu dangō jinji ("collusive group bidding for posts among the factions")

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LDP Secretary-General: IBUKI Bunmei - faction head

LDP Policy Research Council Chairman: TANIGAKI Sadakazu - faction head

LDP Director, Elections Strategy Headquarters, General Affairs: KOGA Makoto - faction head

LDP Chairman of the General Council - NIKAI Toshihiro - faction head

Foreign Affairs Minister - MACHIMURA Nobutaka - faction head

Defense Minister - KOMURA Masahiko - faction head

That leaves TSUSHIMA Yuji, YAMAZAKI Taku and the newly unemployed ASO Taro as faction heads without a major post.

Tsushima feels himself too old and has ceded his spot to Nukaga Fukushiro (and what a nice spot too: Minister of Finance).

Assuming LDP job assignments are made on the basis of logic, Yamazaki will be named something on the order of "State Minister for DPRK Relations" tomorrow.

After Aso Taro's strong showing in the LDP presidential election and his sudden removal from the Secretary-General post, many in the LDP rank-and-file are putting pressure on the core leadership to give him a spot in the Cabinet as a sop.

Stumbling blocks included whether or not Aso would be willing to take up the Education & Technology post vacated by Ibuki; whether would be able to countenance the possible replacement of his ally Hatoyama Kunio as Minister of Justice; or whether the leadership, still ticked, thinks he needs to go off and cogitate for a while about just how badly he blew it.