Japanese PM Noda revamps Cabinet

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda unveiled the new Cabinet lineup here on Monday after accepting the ministers' resignation en masse earlier in the day.

Noda announced at a press conference the appointments of ex- Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara as national policy minister, and Koriki Jojima who was chief of Diet affairs in ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) as finance minister, among others, in a bid to bolster the waning public support for his year-old government.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda holds a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo October 1, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The premier also tapped Makiko Tanaka, another former foreign minister who used to enjoy huge public popularity for her sharp tongue, as education minister.

Hiroyuki Nagahama, deputy chief Cabinet secretary, and Shinji Tarutoko, a former acting secretary general of the DPJ, will become the environment minister and internal affairs minister.

Noda gave the posts of health, labor and welfare minister and postal privatization minister to ex-deputy transport minister Wakio Mitsui and Mikio Shimoji, secretary general of the DPJ's coalition partner the People's New Party, respectively.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada, Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto, Industry Minister Yukio Edano and Reconstruction Minister Tatsuo Hirano will stay in their current posts.

Transport Minister Yuichiro Hata and Farm Minister Akira Gunji who took the portfolio in a Cabinet revamp in June, will also remain in their posts.  

The reshuffled Cabinet will be formally inaugurated with an attestation ceremony at the Imperial Palace in the afternoon.