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Japan's Democrats to sign off on key cabinet picks

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-07 10:07

TOKYO: Top executives of Japan's new ruling party were expected to sign off on their leader's choices for key cabinet posts on Monday, a week after the Democratic Party's landslide victory in a national election.

Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama, who will take office on September 16, said he had picked Naoto Kan, a 62-year-old former health minister, to head a powerful new agency that will oversee the budget process and set policy priorities.

Special coverage:  Japan General Election 2009

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Hatoyama also said Katsuya Okada, 56, had been chosen to be foreign minister, a post being closely watched in Washington because of concerns about the US-Japan alliance after his party has vowed a more independent diplomatic course.

The huge election win by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and breaks a deadlock in parliament, ushering in a government that has promised to focus spending on consumers, cut waste and reduce the power of bureaucrats.

But some analysts worry that the Democrats' spending plans could inflate a public debt already about 170 percent of GDP, the highest among advanced countries.

Japanese media have reported that Hirohisa Fujii, 77, a former finance minister, would probably be chosen to hold the same key post in Hatoyama's cabinet.

But it was unclear whether the choice would be finalised before Hatoyama cements a proposed coalition with tiny parties whose cooperation is needed to control parliament's upper house.