By David Pilling in TokyoPublished: September 25 2007 12:25
Yasuo Fukuda, 71, yesterday named a cabinet of heavyweights in a regrouping of the Liberal Democratic party’s old guard after being confirmed by parliament as Japan’s prime minister.
Mr Fukuda, a consensus-seeking moderate, must rapidly rebuild his party’s credibility if he is to fend off the challenge of the Democratic Party of Japan and establish himself as anything but a caretaker premier.
The DPJ, which took control of the weaker upper chamber in July, is now expected to press for an early dissolution of parliament by using its veto to force a political stalemate.
The LDP has been in a state of crisis for much of the past year, as minister after minister quit amid scandal, culminating in the sudden resignation this month of Shinzo Abe as prime minister. On Monday, a sickly looking Mr Abe, who was hospitalised for intestinal problems, apologised to the nation for “creating a political vacuum” and urged his party to unite behind Mr Fukuda.
Mr Fukuda, who was backed by eight of nine LDP factions, drew heavily on faction heads in what looked like an attempt to consolidate his own authority and present an image of competence to a disgruntled electorate.
Nobutaka Machimura, head of the LDP’s biggest faction, was named chief cabinet secretary, one of the most prominent roles.
The new prime minister failed to persuade Taro Aso, his rival in the race to head the LDP, to take a cabinet slot. Apart from that, his selections built heavily on Mr Abe’s shortlived second cabinet, named in August.
Fukushiro Nukaga stays at finance, while Hiroko Ota remains as economy minister. Both have expressed a desire to press ahead with fiscal consolidation and market-led reforms, though many analysts say the impetus for change has slowed since economic crisis abated a few years ago.
Masahiko Komura moves from defence to the foreign portfolio, while Shigeru Ishiba, a defence expert who held the post previously, goes back to his old job. There, he will be charged with developing a new anti-terror law acceptable to the DPJ, whose refusal to extend a previous anti-terror bill was the final blow for Mr Abe.
Opposition parties criticised the selection as smacking of old-style cabinets before those of Junichiro Koizumi, the charismatic former prime minister who ignored party factions and often turned to the private sector. Naoto Kan, deputy president of the DPJ, said: “The LDP has turned back the clock 10 or 20 years.”
Keiichiro Asao, DPJ shadow defence minister, said the Fukuda administration would go back to old ways of relying on the bureaucracy to make policies. He urged a quick dissolution of the powerful lower house, saying: “The public has not had a chance to say whether or not they like either the Abe or the Fukuda governments.”
In a sign of Japan’s fraught political situation, the upper house voted for Ichiro Ozawa, head of the DPJ, as prime minister - a decision that had to be overruled by the LDP-controlled lower house. The official ceremony to confirm the new cabinet was delayed to this morning.
Karel van Wolferen, author of several books on Japan, said the LDP looked as though it was regrouping and trying to steal the opposition’s clothes, as it had done many times in 52 years of almost unbroken power. He said Mr Ozawa, despite questions over his health, was a credible threat because, as an LDP defector, he understood how the system worked.
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