Japan gets sixth prime minister in four years

Tokyo: Japan's incoming prime minister named his new Cabinet on Tuesday, keeping core members in place to address the country's deep economic and foreign policy issues but adding several fresh faces -- including a former model -- to win back voters ahead of upcoming elections.

Prime Minister-elect Naoto Kan also said he would honour an agreement with Washington to move a key US Marine base to a less crowded part of Okinawa -- an issue that led to the downfall of his predecessor.

Japan's sixth prime minister in four years, Kan was to be officially be sworn in later Tuesday in a ceremony with Emperor Akihito.

His new administration has touted a new direction and fiscal reform to tackle Japan's huge public debt. It faces the challenge of wooing voters back to the ruling Democrats after many were angered by the former government's broken campaign promises and financial scandals.

Ex-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama -- also from Kan's Democratic Party of Japan -- stepped down last week after just eight months in office amid criticism for failing to keep a campaign promise to move US Marine Air Station Futenma off Okinawa.

Kan said Tuesday that he could not break a pact with the US to keep the base on Okinawa, but he also recognized the islanders' fierce opposition to the plan and said he would work to alleviate the burden on the island, which hosts more than half the 47,000 US troops based in Japan under a security alliance.

"We must proceed with the issue based on the agreement that we have reached," Kan said at a press conference after naming his Cabinet. "But we will also sincerely tackle the problem in order to reduce Okinawa's burdens."

Kan chose to maintain the bulk of the existing Cabinet, including the country's powerful foreign and defense ministers. But he also added some new, younger members.

"With freshness and professionalism, we would like to create a government that is thoroughly clean and accountable," said new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihito Sengoku.

Among the new picks are Renho, a former model and television announcer who gained widespread popularity in the media as she grilled bureaucrats in public budget debates last year.

A rising star among the Democrats, Renho at 42 will be the youngest member of the new Cabinet, becoming minister of administrative reforms. Her father is Taiwanese and she goes by one name.

"She's pretty impressive. She was sharp as a knife when she was going at her questioning," said Sheila Smith, a senior fellow at Council on Foreign Affairs in Washington.

Kan, who previously served as finance minister, will be replaced by former subordinate Yoshihiko Noda, who favors financial discipline and is against heavy public spending or more borrowing by Tokyo.

Noda must take the lead in crafting the government's new strategy on fiscal reform, which is expected by the end of this month. Japan has the largest public debt among industrialized nations, at 218.6 percent of its gross domestic product in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund.

He has said he sees the Greek debt crisis as a warning for Japan's tattered public finances.

Another key figure in the new Cabinet is Sengoku, the new Cabinet secretary, a persuasive speaker whose job it will be to bring together and articulate Kan's key objectives -- a job many analysts believe he will excel at.

"Sengoku is Mr. Policy Wonk. He's very smart and policy-savvy," Smith said. "He very committed to the changes in governance structure, the kinds of issues that DPJ wants to engage in — transparency, accountability, how to make longer-term, solid planning in policy. He's an important part of the puzzle."

The plain-spoken Kan, known for his sometimes fiery temper and for exposing a government cover-up of HIV-tainted blood products in the mid-1990s, was elected prime minister in a parliamentary vote last week after Hatoyama's abrupt resignation.

The retention of the foreign and defense posts are especially important given increased tensions in the region after the alleged sinking of a South Korean patrol ship by a North Korean submarine two months ago, as well as Tokyo's continuing negotiations over a controversial U.S. Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa.

Kan's reputation and common roots -- in contrast to several of the previous leaders who all hailed from politically elite families -- could boost the DPJ's fortunes ahead of elections, analysts say.

Recent polls show that the Democrats have already won back a measure of voter trust.

A poll published Tuesday in the national Sankei newspaper showed that 57 percent of recipients have high expectations for the new government, and support for the party has recovered to 31 percent, versus 18 percent from before Hatoyama stepped down.

The Sankei survey was conducted through random telephone interviews of 1,000 eligible voters. It did not give a margin of error, but that sampling size would normally have a margin of about 5 percentage points.