TOKYO —

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama launched his cabinet on Wednesday, bringing an end to the Liberal Democratic Party’s almost total control of Japanese politics over the past 54 years, aiming to reduce bureaucratic power in policy-making and revive the world’s second-largest economy.
   
The coalition government of Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party is the first government to be led by a party other than the Liberal Democratic Party in the past 16 years. The LDP had governed Japan since its founding in 1955, except for a period of about 11 months from 1993 to 1994.
   
‘‘I feel thrilled and excited and am strongly aware that I bear the grave responsibility of changing Japan to a people-oriented nation,’’ the new Japanese leader said at his first press conference in Tokyo.
   
On the DPJ’s promises, the DPJ chief said the coalition would place priority on economy-boosting measures such as allowances for families with children and scrapping gasoline taxes, while thoroughly reviewing the economic steps and budgets adopted by the LDP-led coalition for any wasteful spending.
   
But analysts believe that a big challenge facing the DPJ-led coalition will be policy coordination with the two minor parties, whose positions, notably those of the SDP on foreign and national security issues, differ from the DPJ.
   
The SDP has sought a drastic reexamination of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement and the deployment of U.S. forces in Japan, whereas the DPJ is unwilling to take a tough stance with Washington ahead of a meeting between Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama expected next week, as its pledge to be more independent of the United States has already raised eyebrows among officials in Washington.
   
‘‘I have no intention of changing our basic stance and it is true that our coalition accord says it will make efforts toward a review of the SOFA as well as U.S. forces in Japan, but I believe that this visit should focus on nurturing bilateral relations of trust,’’ Hatoyama said.

‘‘What is most important is to enhance the sense of trust through frank exchanges of opinions,’’ Hatoyama said. ‘‘And I think it is important that we take some time to implement a comprehensive review of various outstanding issues between Japan and the United States and security matters.’’

Hatoyama is expected to fly to the United States next week to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York and the Group of 20 financial summit in Pittsburgh. Bilateral meetings are expected to be held on the sidelines.
   
Noting that Japan has tended to be ‘‘passive’’ in its relations with the United States until now, Hatoyama also said, ‘‘We want to build a relationship in which Japan, from an active stance, can speak straightforwardly about what we are thinking.’‘
   
On his idea of an East Asian Community, Hatoyama said that what lies beyond it should be the idea of an ‘‘Asia-Pacific Community’’ and noted that he does not think that everything can be achieved without cooperation from the United States.
   
The untested DPJ also faces a bumpy road ahead because of its fuzzy financial policy as well as campaign-fund scandals involving Hatoyama as well as party Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa.
   
‘‘I would like to make efforts to fully explain (the case),’’ Hatoyama said at the press conference, apologizing to the public for causing confusion.
   
Earlier on Wednesday, both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors elected Hatoyama as the new prime minister by majority votes. Hirofumi Hirano, Hatoyama’s top aide named by the prime minister as chief cabinet secretary, announced the lineup of Hatoyama’s cabinet.
   
Hatoyama has appointed former Finance Ministry bureaucrat Hirohisa Fujii as finance minister, former DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada as foreign minister, and DPJ Acting President Naoto Kan as minister in charge of the planned National Strategy Bureau—a new body to be set up to lay out budgets and basic policies.
   
The DPJ, which called for greater power for elected officials over bureaucrats in policymaking and promised to do away with wasteful spending in its campaign platform, secured 308 of the 480 seats in the lower house in the Aug 30 election, trouncing the LDP-New Komeito party coalition.
   
The 11-year-old DPJ is a conglomerate of LDP defectors, former socialists as well as 143 novice lawmakers—most of whom won their Diet seats for the first time under the guidance of election strategist Ozawa—meaning that it lacks seasoned politicians with expertise on steering the economy out of a longstanding recession.
   
In its manifesto, the DPJ promised to put more money in the hands of consumers by offering child allowances and scrapping expressway tolls. It said the steps could be bankrolled by cutting back on wasteful use of taxpayers’ money and without raising the nation’s consumption tax from the current 5 percent.
   
But analysts are skeptical over whether the party will be able to secure enough funds to implement such promises, while also noting that the DPJ’s election victory and public expectations for the new ruling coalition have put the scandals in the shade.
   
Ozawa, former DPJ acting president, on Tuesday succeeded Okada as secretary general, the party’s No. 2 post, taking charge of day-to-day party affairs and elections.
   
SDP chief Mizuho Fukushima was appointed minister in charge of consumer affairs, the declining birthrate, food safety and gender equality, while PNP leader Shizuka Kamei took up a new ministerial post overseeing postal and financial affairs.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 32 Total Comments Show All

• 

  apecNetworks at 05:22 PM JST - 16th September

  PM Hatoyama,welcome to Shakedown Japan 2009/2010s Job,nice tie.

  Shakedown 2009/2010s management ,requires more than nice ties

  From my sources, I tend to agree that that may be in the cards - we'll see in the first 90 days if Forex is involved.

  As far as the Hatoyama Cabinet, if they can grasp the overall situation, they may be able to find a path of clear sailing on the high seas. Ganbatte.

• 

  neverknow2 at 06:53 PM JST - 16th September

  Congratulations!!!

  See you when we get to Venus with Tom Cruise.

• 

  Blue_Tiger at 07:24 PM JST - 16th September

  I believe that Mr. Ozawa will be PM within six months to a year.

  Prayers for you, Mr. Prime Minister.

• 

  kwatt at 09:13 PM JST - 16th September

  Not 60th prime mister. Mr. Hatoyama is 93rd prime mister.

• 

  noborito at 09:20 PM JST - 16th September

  CNN reported that he plans to 1. try to reduce or eliminate outsourced or contract work and 2. plans to give 100,000 yen a month to JAPANESES unemployed workers until they get a job. Both of these things are pretty much anti-foreign labor. By law all foreigners are required to be CONTRACTED workers. It is written in the immigration rules. So basically protectionism is well and alive in Japan.

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  topup2009 at 09:35 PM JST - 16th September

  congradulations! like my uncle next door.

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  Triumvere at 10:04 PM JST - 16th September

  Now that would truely be revolutionary! Come on, Mr. Hatoyama, make me eat my previous words about the DJP!

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  bobbafett at 11:14 PM JST - 16th September

  Look out for the Ozawa double cross and eventual rule.

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  Gaijinocchio at 11:17 PM JST - 16th September

  Congrats!

  ...I give him 13 months. 13 is my lucky number.

• 

  usaexpat at 11:25 PM JST - 16th September

  SSDD just like Obama's change, nothing changes except who's getting the graft.

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  Shaolin7 at 11:43 PM JST - 16th September

  Congratulations Mr. Hatoyama, and best of luck; you have tasks of tremendous difficulty before you. Ozawa certainly seems to be the puppetmaster in the shadows, so we'll see what happens should Hatoyama stumble. The costs of raising a child in Japan seem enormous by relative standards, and with the dearth of proper paying full time work (not to mention the harsh stance towards pregnant women in the workforce) the system appears almost deliberately detrimental to young married couples seeking to start a family. Promising per-child, monthly aid is nice but in the end, the unemployment / partial employment issue needs to be addressed effectively (something every other country is struggling with as well, to be fair).

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  ReikiZen at 03:16 AM JST - 17th September

  I certainly wish Mr. Hatoyama the best of luck as he is going to need it. Although I don't think this is the time to be pushing Anti-US rederick. There is already enough of that as is without Mr. Hatoyama's help. Japan-US relations have always been somewhat unstable to begin with. We don't need any more friction to add to that. Hatoyama focus needs to be on the economy and not on things of which to further destabilize that. While I am all in support of Japan being more independent. To what degree will always be up for debate.

  Less dependence on US just means more dependence on someone else. Which in turn all comes back full circle anyways. China has found that out first hand as were not as immune to the financial crisis as they thought they were. Another key problem is that Japan is still a very closed society. They have no problem exporting but import almost nothing. The US Japan trade has always been one sided which hasn't helped the situation any. Not to mention being so anti-foreigner doesn't help matters any. Tourism I feel could be huge in Japan but at current is even below some third world countries lol. As long as Japan still remains a mostly closed society change will not come.

  In regards to the base issue this no doubt will be a tough sell. There is still fear among many in the West that a complete withdrawal from Japan, considered a vital national security interest could threaten to destabilize the entire region. A US withdrawal would mean Japan would likely have to re-militarize. This likely would not go over well with China or anyone else in the region for that matter. It would directly change Japan's status as a military power and therefore would also make them a target for terrorists. This is something Japan doesn't need right now and would only further destabilize the economy.

  In addition to this, like it or not. The Japan-US economy are two intertwined to really be able to separate themselves that much. Japan along with China own 70% of the US debt.. Not to mention a huge investment in many of it's largest Corporations, Banks, Institutions as well as a large part of Wall Street. China is somewhat similar although not on as large of a scale. So Mr. Hatoyama while I praise his taking a bold stance and commitment for change. His Anti-US position will not get him to far and likely just more criticism for worsening the situation then it already is.

  Although on the flip side at least if there was no US presence. Japan couldn't blame the West for all of it's political and domestic problems. This is reason enough to keep the bases there lol. I hope for Mr. Hatoyama sake he is able to turn around and bring honor and respect to his party and not disgrace. I wish the same for Mr. Obama as well as both are going to need it.

• 

  apecNetworks at 04:33 AM JST - 17th September

  Correction:

  rajakumar at 03:09 PM JST - 16th September

  PM Hatoyama,welcome to Shakedown Japan 2009/2010s Job,nice tie.

  Shakedown 2009/2010s management ,requires more than nice ties.

  From my sources, I tend to agree that that may be in the cards - we'll see in the first 90 days if Forex is involved.

  As far as the Hatoyama Cabinet, if they can grasp the overall situation, they may be able to find a path of clear sailing on the high seas. Ganbatte.

  To ReikiZen:

  Your post is definately thought provoking and some of the topics have crossed my analysis. PM Hatoyama is not "Anti-US", but more so wants a more transparent relationship where what is stated is the actual policy (example: secret Japan-US nuke pact). I, myself have had numerous problems w/ the situation where I pursue a pro democracy, pro capitalism policies, but is not acceptable to certain parties in the US. The "actual" policy is not clear, but I have analyzed much, much deeper into the subject on the internet, and at least now have gotten a grasp of some of the inconsistencies.

• 

  Brantastik at 10:44 AM JST - 17th September

  He's a politician and none are better at flip-flopping than they are. He stressed that he wanted to be more independent of the US but doesn't seem to have the balls to proceed with this intention. Diplomacy is one thing but I sense that he won't see this through.

  I hope he at least keeps his promise to put Japan and it's people first, ensuring Japan's future and stability.

  I am also a big supporter of his East Asia Community concept and I've actually dreamed of something similar for most of my life.

• 

  Klein2 at 01:00 AM JST - 20th September

  Noborito... your comments are hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

  The elimination of contract work sounds particularly naive of Mr. Hatoyama. Let me see. How would that work? Organizations would hire workers who have the skills and efficiency of entire companies, is that it? So if I have been contracting out food services for my employees, I will now hire workers as cooks and do that in-house, is that right? Oh, and I have to train them because I can't hire a contractor to do that either.

  It is hard for me to imagine a more wrongheaded policy. Factor in that contract work is done by small businesses, and can it be said that the DPJ is against small businesses? Against productivity growth? Against dissemination of technology and knowhow?

  The payments to unemployed workers seem kind of silly too. There IS work to be done, but let me see... 1000 yen per hour 40 hours a week gives you about 170000 per month. Effectively, it will become impossible to find help at convenience stores for 20 hours per week if people can sit at home and "earn" 100000 per month. They certainly will not be starting any contracting businesses either.

  I think we are going to find out what we all kind of expected. All of those promises shouted from sound trucks are not going to amount to a hill of beans because these politicians have no idea at all of how society functions. I know it is not popular to say so, but I think Japan's bureaucracy is to be trusted with Japan's future. These DPJ guys are looking like clowns. Their slogan should be NO WE CAN'T!!!

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