Image Taro Kono, one of the Liberal Democratic Party’s most liberal voices, will be foreign minister. Credit... Shizuo Kambayashi/Associated Press

The post of foreign minister went to Taro Kono, one of the most liberal voices in the governing Liberal Democratic Party. Mr. Kono is known for his vocal opposition to nuclear power after the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011, a position that has put him at odds with his pronuclear party.

Mr. Kono’s father is Yohei Kono, a former foreign minister who, as chief cabinet secretary in 1993, issued a landmark apology to women from Korea and elsewhere who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothels during World War II. The so-called Kono Statement has long been resented by the nationalist right wing of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Tobias Harris, a Japan analyst at Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consultancy based in New York, said on Twitter that the lineup of new ministers “looks like a policy wonk cabinet.”

Mr. Kono succeeds Fumio Kishida, a moderate rival to Mr. Abe who is considered a potential successor as prime minister, and who did not receive a spot in the new cabinet. Mr. Kishida was instead given a top executive role in the Liberal Democratic Party, as chairman of its policy research council. Mr. Harris noted that members of Mr. Kishida’s faction of the party were given more posts than in the previous cabinet — five, up from three — strengthening his position.

Image Seiko Noda, the new minister of internal affairs and communications, will be one of just two women in the cabinet. Credit... Toru Hanai/Reuters

Mr. Abe’s second term as the party’s president expires next year. The party changed its term-limit rules this year to allow for a third term, but without a sharp turnaround in his public support Mr. Abe is unlikely to convince party members to let him stay on.