Japan unlikely to reshuffle cabinet until next summer

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is unlikely to reshuffle the current cabinet until next summer.

The top government spokesman said that it is the need for all ministers to oversee the process of creating the fiscal 2014 budget, according to local media.

He told a press conference that the current cabinet, by common sense, is likely to do its work through the end of the next ordinary Diet session, which normally lasts from January to June and enacts the initial state budget before a new fiscal year starts on April 1, according to Japan's Kyodo News.

Abe, who is now in a visit to Russia, on Wednesday told reporters in Russia's St. Petersburg that each ministers should be responsible for formulating the budget, indicating he will not change current cabinet lineup until 2014.