Japan’s prime minister will give a fiscal hawk a key post when he revamps his Cabinet today, media reported, a move probably intended to show he is serious about tax reforms to rein in the country’s huge public debt.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will appoint former administrative reform minister Yukio Edano as his de facto deputy and draft former finance minister Kaoru Yosano, a fiscal conservative, for a government post, Japanese media reported a day ahead of the reshuffle.
“I’m sure it is intended to send a message — that he is serious about fiscal reform — but it depends on who the other ministers are,” said Robert Feldman, chief economist at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities in Tokyo, referring to Yosano.
Photo: AFP
Feldman added that Edano, mooted for the No. 2 Cabinet post, had done a good job in his previous government job, which focused on cutting wasteful spending, and had “very broad policy experience.”
Edano is currently deputy secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
Giving Edano the key post could, however, exacerbate a rift in the ruling party over scandal-tainted strategist Ichiro Ozawa, since Edano has been a critic of the veteran politician.
Yosano said he had not been approached about a post, but would consider what to do if he were.
“What Prime Minister Kan is saying about fiscal policy, tax reform and the welfare system are problems that can’t be avoided. Trade policy is also important,” he told a press conference.
“If I can help on these two issues, I would like to do so, even if it’s from the sidelines,” he said, adding that he would leave the small, conservative Sunrise Party he helped found last year.
Kan, whose support rates have halved from the 60 percent enjoyed when he took office last June as Japan’s fifth prime minister since 2006, this month again raised the touchy topic of boosting Japan’s 5 percent sales tax to fund the ballooning costs of providing social welfare for Japan’s fast-aging population.
“The question is whether we can face problems that have been ignored for 20 years,” Kan told a DPJ convention yesterday.
Kan is also pitching the need for trade liberalization keenly sought by businesses, but opposed by powerful farm lobbies.
Kan is reshuffling the Cabinet largely to replace Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, a move aimed at smoothing the path for debate on the budget for the year from April when parliament opens this month.
The opposition-controlled upper house passed non-binding but embarrassing censure motions against Sengoku and Transport Minister Sumio Mabuchi in November over their handling of a territorial dispute with China.
Mabuchi will also be replaced, Japanese media said.
Opposition parties have threatened to boycott a debate on the 2011-2012 budget when parliament opens this month unless the two are sacked.
The government can enact the budget because the DPJ controls the powerful lower house, but the opposition can block enabling legislation in the upper chamber.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing