Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan added new faces to his Cabinet yesterday in a bid to appease opposition parties, help his push to mend the country’s tattered finances and boost free trade to spur growth.
Among the changes in Kan’s third Cabinet since becoming prime minister were new fiscal policy, trade, justice and transport ministers, but the prime minister kept other key posts such as foreign, finance and defense portfolios unchanged.
In doing so, Kan has bowed to pressure from the conservative opposition in order to help secure the passage of bills to finance this year’s budget, as he seeks to energize an economy mired in deflation, saddled by huge debt and burdened by a graying population.
Kan has seen his support ratings tumble after only seven months as prime minister as his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) gears up for a tough 150-day parliamentary session starting this month.
“For Japan and the DPJ government, this Cabinet reshuffle has come at a particularly difficult time,” said new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, replacing Yoshito Sengoku, who takes a top party post.
Opposition parties had threatened to boycott budget sessions and delay the passage of key legislation unless Sengoku was removed, citing what was seen as his mishandling of a bitter -territorial row with China.
Kan appointed a fiscal hawk, 72-year-old conservative former Japanese finance minister Kaoru Yosano, as his new fiscal policy minister, also putting him in charge of tax and social welfare.
His brief will be to help balance state finances in Japan, where the public debt is now twice the size of the US$5 trillion economy, and where the rapid ageing of the population will put more pressure on the public purse.
Yosano advocates raising the consumption tax to boost revenue and eventually help reduce debt.
“The appointment of Yosano symbolizes Kan’s determination to push for fiscal reforms,” said Shinichi Nishikawa, professor of politics at Tokyo’s Meiji University.
Kan replaced his trade minister, Akihiro Ohata, who has been reluctant to support the prime minister’s initiative to join the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership being debated by nine countries.
Membership in the trade pact now taking shape has been strongly backed by Japanese industrial lobbies, but opposed by politically powerful farmers’ groups who fear floods of cheap imports, especially rice.
Ohata will be replaced by Banri Kaieda, who previously served as fiscal policy minister. Satsuki Eda takes on the role of Justice Minister.
The foreign, finance and defense ministers retained their posts in the new Cabinet, which was due to be sworn in by Emperor Akihito in the evening.
Analysts said the prime minister’s hand was forced by the conservative opposition, which had threatened to hold up crucial budget financing bills unless Kan sacked two Cabinet members against whom it has launched censure motions.
The two — Sengoku and the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Sumio Mabuchi — left the Cabinet. Ohata stayed on to replace Mabuchi.
The opposition last year passed non-binding censure motions against Sengoku and Mabuchi over what it said was their mishandling of a heated row with China over a maritime incident in disputed waters involving Japan’s Coast Guard.
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