Junichiro Koizumi, newly elected president of the dominant LDP, broke with tradition Wednesday and awarded the top three party spots to lawmakers outside of the largest faction.
In another sign of Koizumi's determination to do away with factional politics, he appointed a lawmaker to the party's No. 2 post who had been ostensibly excommunicated after participating in a failed attempt to oust former president Yoshiro Mori from the prime minister's seat in November.
Taku Yamasaki, a former party policy chief and longtime friend of Koizumi, returned to the political spotlight as LDP secretary general, the party's No. 2 post.