New Japan PM fills Cabinet posts

Tokyo - Japan's new prime minister picked close allies on Friday for key positions in his Cabinet as he tries to steer his troubled nation through disaster recovery, a nuclear crisis and a lengthy economic slump.

Yoshihiko Noda, a surprise choice for prime minister when he took control of the ruling party this week, is bringing along some fresh faces to the Cabinet, including 47-year-old Koichiro Genba as foreign minister and 49-year-old Jun Azumi as finance minister.

Both are relatively young in a Japanese political world normally dominated by elder statesmen, and both are closely allied with Noda.

"The appointments were aimed at achieving party unity," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said at a news conference.

"They will work like loaches mired in mud and sweating to get the job done," added Fujimura.

Loaches, a type of bottom-feeding, eel-like fish, have become a bit of an odd buzzword after Noda described himself as one in what has largely been interpreted as a self-deprecating remark.

Noda, Japan's sixth prime minister in five years, is keeping around some ministers from the previous Cabinet. He's retaining Goshi Hosono as the minister in charge of dealing with the nuclear crisis in Fukushima and Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano, who ran against Noda for the party leadership and is considered well-connected with veteran legislators.

Noda said on Friday that during his tenure he would not visit Yasukuni Shrine, which honors some 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 war criminals and is seen as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

He also vowed to deepen ties with China and speed up post-quake recovery at his inaugural press conference.

"With China, my basic position is to develop the mutually beneficial and strategic relationship," Noda said after naming his cabinet in the morning.

Noda stressed that reconstruction from the March 11 disaster and the resolution of the nuclear crisis remained as the top priorities for his government.

"I believe reconstruction and rehabilitation from the disaster, like for the Kan government, continues to be the top priority for our cabinet," said Noda.

Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Sophia University, said Noda's picks were balanced enough that he felt optimistic the Cabinet would last at least a year, a solid achievement given the records of recent prime ministers.

"The neo-liberal reformists who tend to be young and in their 40s are placed in eye-catching ministries," Nakano said of several new ministers, including Azumi and Genba. "Those youthful, new leaders of Japan are placed in high visibility positions."

In a nod to his key rival and party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, Noda appointed lawmakers close to Ozawa as the defense minister and the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission.

Ozawa still has significant clout in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and backed another candidate for the leadership post.

Robert Dujarric, professor of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo, said the Democrats were still "learning on the job" after wresting power in 2009, displacing a conservative party that had ruled Japan almost continuously for half a century.

"Clearly, Japan needs a Cabinet that is capable of making good policy decisions and implementing it," he said.

"But for several years, one could even say 20 years, Japan has been semi-paralyzed. Therefore, the voters have gotten used to this paralysis and expect very little from the prime minister and the Cabinet."

Azusa Kato, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in Tokyo, was more optimistic, saying Noda could prove to be an improvement over his predecessor, Naoto Kan, whose popularity had plunged in recent months.

"Before, we had absolutely no hopes at all for any action. And so maybe things are getting better," Kato said.

AP-Xinhua-AFP