Japan's PM makes key party appointments

TOKYO - Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Wednesday unveiled appointments for key party positions in a balancing act that aims to build unity after a bruising leadership battle.

Noda has pledged to be a peacemaker in the center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which is deeply split between supporters and foes of veteran powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, who has been indicted in a political funds scandal.

Ozawa, often dubbed the "Shadow Shogun", is the party's biggest faction boss, commanding the support of some 120 lawmakers, and was a rival of Noda's predecessor Naoto Kan. He also backed a candidate who ran against Noda in the leadership contest.

But as the DPJ's new president, Noda, 54, gave the number-two post of secretary-general to Azuma Koshiishi, a lawmaker who is close to Ozawa.

Koshiishi, the 75-year-old leader of the DPJ upper house caucus, is a former elementary school teacher who was also a senior teachers union official.

The new premier also named Hirofumi Hirano, 62 - a close aide to Ozawa ally and ex-premier Yukio Hatoyama - to an influential post, that of the DPJ's parliamentary affairs chief.

Noda gave the post of DPJ policy chief to one of the four candidates he defeated in Monday's ballot - the ex-foreign minister Seiji Maehara.

Maehara, 49, the candidate with the most public support, lost in the first round of the contest when Ozawa-backed trade minister Banri Kaieda took the most votes. Noda went on to win when Maehara-backers switched their support to him.

Noda was elected as Japan's sixth new prime minister in five years on Tuesday. He is the DPJ's third premier and took office two years to the day since the party won a landslide election that ended a half-century of conservative rule.

Noda, a judo black belt with a fondness for metaphors, is now turning to sports analogies as he preaches unity to his fractious ruling party.

Speaking to DPJ lawmakers about his picks for a new party executive line-up, Noda said on Wednesday: "In soccer terms, I want them to be mid-fielders.

"There are many, including me, who want to be a center-forward but what this party needs is a group of mid-fielders with broad views who can deliver strategic passes."

Not to be outdone, Noda's new party policy chief Maehara - a pitcher in his youth - used a baseball analogy to urge his fellow MPs to pull together.

"In the spirit of everyone playing on the baseball team, I want all of you to participate in the political process," said Maehara.

Noda often quips that he lacks a talent for "newaza" moves involving grappling on the mat. "I was never good at 'newaza' in either judo or politics, and am still bad at it now," is how he puts it.

The unassuming Noda's sense of humor evoked laughter and grabbed headlines this week when he compared his jowly features to those of a "dojo" loach - a bottom-feeding fish.

"I do look like this and if I become prime minister, the support rate would not rise, so I would not call a snap election," he told DPJ lawmakers before they voted on Monday.

AFP-Reuters