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2 Fukuda launches his 'do or die'
cabinet By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - New Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo
Fukuda, a 71-year-old veteran moderate with a
reputation as a consensus-oriented politician,
formally inaugurated his cabinet on Wednesday,
filling a two-week political vacuum created by his
predecessor Shinzo Abe's abrupt resignation
announcement.
With the Diet (parliament)
in session, however, Yasuo Fukuda, the eldest son
of the late Takeo Fukuda (prime minister 1976-78),
retained most of the 17
members of the previous Abe cabinet, which had
been reshuffled only in late August. Fukuda
himself named his team a "do or die" cabinet.
Nobutaka Machimura, who heads the largest
faction within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP), was appointed chief cabinet secretary.
Fukuda belongs to the same faction. Masahiko
Komura, who served as defense minister in the Abe
cabinet until Tuesday morning, was appointed to
replace Machimura as foreign minister.
Shigeru Ishiba, who had served as director
general of what was then the Defense Agency under
prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, was named to
head the Defense Ministry. House of
Representatives member Kisaburo Tokai was chosen
to replace Bunmei Ibuki as education and science
minister. Ibuki took a key LDP post on Monday.
All the other 13 members of the Fukuda
team are holdovers from the Abe cabinet, including
Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, Health, Labor
and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe, and Land,
Infrastructure and Transport Minister Tetsuzo
Fuyushiba, the only cabinet member from the LDP's
junior coalition partner, New Komeito. The posts
for all the 13 ministers remain unchanged.
Although the new premier asked former LDP
secretary general Taro Aso, who ran against Fukuda
in Sunday's party presidential election, to join
his cabinet, Aso declined. In an apparent attempt
to establish party unity, Fukuda retained two key
cabinet ministers who staunchly backed Aso in the
LDP leadership race - Justice Minister Kunio
Hatoyama and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister
Akira Amari.
Fukuda said at a press
conference on Tuesday night that his cabinet has
"its back against the wall. That is to say, if
[the cabinet] fails, the LDP will be ousted from
power."
Fukuda's new top government
spokesman Machimura said the replacement of
cabinet ministers "was kept to a minimum so we can
chart a successful path through a difficult Diet
setting".
Fukuda won the LDP presidential
election, which was held to choose Abe's successor
as party president and hence as prime minister,
with the backing of leaders of eight of nine
intra-party factions. The faction led by Aso is
very small, with only 16 Diet members.
But
the more hawkish Aso, 67, performed much better
than expected, garnering 197 votes, compared with
the 330 ballots cast for Fukuda. In addition to
387 LDP members of the Diet - 304 from the House
of Representatives and 83 from the House of
Councilors - 141 local chapter representatives
voted.
Fukuda said on Tuesday, "He [Aso]
said he wanted to take a rest for a while because
he had been serving in key posts for quite a
while." Many observers say Aso has apparently
opted not to join the Fukuda cabinet, believing
that distancing himself from the cabinet would
boost his chances of replacing Fukuda in the
future.
On Monday, Fukuda also installed
faction bosses who supported his bid for LDP
presidency at key party posts, in defiance of
widespread criticism of faction-oriented politics,
something most Japanese thought Koizumi had
mothballed as a symbol of the "old LDP" and an
obstacle to reform when he roared into office in
2001.
Ibuki, who served as education and
science minister in the Abe cabinet, became the
new LDP secretary general, the party's
second-in-command after Fukuda, while former
finance minister Sadakazu Tanigaki became chairman
of the Policy Research Council. General Council
chairman Toshihiro Nikai kept his post.
Former secretary general Makoto Koga, also
a faction chief, became chairman of the election
strategy committee. This post was upgraded from
that of director general of the election strategy
bureau to make it equal to the three key posts.
The LDP-led coalition lost control of the
House of Councilors in the July election to the
opposition led by the Democratic Party of Japan
(DPJ). But as LDP president, Fukuda had been
assured of election as prime minister in the Diet,
as the party controls the more powerful House of
Representatives, whose decision constitutionally
takes precedence over that of the House of
Councilors regarding the election of a prime
minister.
Takeo Fukuda became his father's
secretary in 1976 after working for an oil company
for 17 years. Fukuda was first elected to the
Lower House in 1990 at the age of 53 and is now
serving his sixth term. At 71, the younger Fukuda
became prime minister at the same age as his
father did.
The new prime minister served
as chief cabinet secretary from October 2000 to
May 2004 under prime ministers Yoshiro Mori and
Koizumi. Having held the post for 1,289 days,
Fukuda became the longest-serving top government
spokesperson. He quit the post to take
responsibility for his failure to pay some pension
premiums.
Fukuda faces the daunting task
of reversing the sagging fortunes of the LDP,
which is still reeling from a crushing defeat on
July 29. The DPJ became the largest party in that
Diet chamber, amid
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