Tokyo: Yasuo Fukuda, a seasoned moderate lawmaker, was chosen Japan’s Prime Minister on Tuesday, then tapped veteran ministers from his predecessor’s Cabinet to confront a powerful Opposition keen to force an election.
The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) picked 71-year-old Fukuda as its leader to revive party fortunes after a disastrous year of scandals and election defeat under Shinzo Abe, who resigned abruptly on September 12.
“I call this ‘the Cabinet with its back to the wall’,” Fukuda told a press conference. “If we put one foot wrong, the LDP could lose control of the government. It will be a tense time,” he added, vowing to try to restore the electorate’s faith in politics.
Fukuda's selection, with the support of the party's factions, has raised fears of back-pedalling on efforts to rein in Japan's huge public debt as a struggling LDP, which has ruled for most of the past five decades, seeks to woo back voters.
A general election is not required until 2009 but could well come much sooner if debate in parliament stalls.
The bespectacled Fukuda, a proponent of warmer ties with Japan's Asian neighbours, bowed and smiled after being voted in as Prime Minister by the lower house, where the ruling camp has a huge majority.
In a sign of the battles ahead, the Opposition-controlled Upper House voted for Ichiro Ozawa, 65, leader of the main Opposition Democratic Party, but that vote was overruled by the more powerful
lower chamber.
Fukuda said he thought he could have fruitful policy discussions with the Democrats and other opposition parties. “I believe that the people's livelihood and the good of the country are at the centre of their thinking,” he said.
Ozawa said he was ready to talk, but repeated his call for an early election for the Lower House.
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