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Updated Thursday, September 1, 2011 0:06 am TWN, AFP



	From left, Japan's newly appointed Prime Minister and President of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Yoshihiko Noda, with his top executive officials in the party, Secretary-General Azuma Koshiishi, policy chief Seiji Maehara and parliamentary affairs chief Hirofumi Hirano, chant with the party's Diet members during their general meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday, Aug. 31. (AFP) Enlarge Photo

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Japan's new PM Noda makes key party appointments

TOKYO -- Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Wednesday unveiled appointments for key party positions in a balancing act that aims to build unity after a bruising leadership battle.

Noda has pledged to be a peacemaker in the center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which is deeply split between supporters and foes of veteran powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, who has been indicted in a political funds scandal.

Ozawa, often dubbed the “Shadow Shogun,” is the party's biggest faction boss, commanding the support of some 120 lawmakers, and was a rival of Noda's predecessor Naoto Kan. He also backed a candidate who ran against Noda in the leadership contest.

But as the DPJ's new president, Noda, 54, gave the number-two post of secretary-general to Azuma Koshiishi, a lawmaker who is close to Ozawa.

Koshiishi, the 75-year-old leader of the DPJ upper house caucus, is a former elementary school teacher who was also a senior teachers union official.

The new premier also named Hirofumi Hirano, 62 — a close aide to Ozawa ally and ex-premier Yukio Hatoyama — to an influential post, that of the DPJ's parliamentary affairs chief.

Noda gave the post of DPJ policy chief to one of the four candidates he defeated in Monday's ballot — the ex-Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.

Maehara, 49, the candidate with the most public support, lost in the first round of the contest when Ozawa-backed Trade Minister Banri Kaieda took the most votes. Noda went on to win when Maehara-backers switched their support to him.

Noda was elected as Japan's sixth new prime minister in five years Tuesday. He is the DPJ's third premier and took office two years to the day since the party won a landslide election that ended a half-century of conservative rule.

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