FOCUS: Kan Cabinet geared up for election, but lineup portends trouble ahead

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TOKYO, June 8 Kyodo -
New Prime Minister Naoto Kan is hoping to revive the ruling party's chances of
winning the House of Councillors election this summer by fashioning a Cabinet
and party leadership largely free of the vestiges of former Democratic Party of
Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa.
But with dissatisfaction with the new lineup already apparently simmering not
just within the pro-Ozawa camp in the party but among those close to Kan, his
success may depend on how he can demonstrate firm leadership while reconciling
the demands of both camps.
Kan, deputy prime minister and finance minister in former Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama's Cabinet, has decided to keep 11 ministers in their posts while
changing one minister's portfolio and appointing five new ministers -- a lineup
seen as largely of his own making.
Likening his ministers to the ''Kiheitai'' militia, who played an active role
in the lead-up to the 1868 Meiji Restoration and were drawn from all social
classes, Kan on Tuesday dubbed his new government the ''Kiheitai Cabinet.''
''I want the lawmakers in my party, who hail from diverse sections of the
public, to fight valiantly with a Kiheitai-like spirit,'' the prime minister
said at a news conference ahead of his Cabinet's formal launch in the evening.
The key post of chief Cabinet secretary went to Yoshito Sengoku, who was
formerly minister in charge of formulating national strategy and promoting
administrative reform.
One of the DPJ's top policy experts, he is expected to be the main coordinator
within the government, and between the government and the ruling and opposition
parties.
''I organized my Cabinet by considering its cohesion with the chief Cabinet
secretary at its axis,'' Kan said. The chief Cabinet secretary ''plays the role
of head clerk in the Cabinet and must be someone who in some cases can say to
the prime minister, 'This is wrong'.''
Possibly at the back of Kan's mind was former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi
Hirano, who was roundly criticized as being inept as a coordinator as the
Hatoyama government limped along over a future relocation site for the U.S.
Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa.
In a notable change from his predecessor, Kan appointed DPJ policy chief
Koichiro Gemba as minister in charge of civil service reform -- the first time
the chairman of the party's policy research committee has been appointed as a
minister.
The appointment reflects an attempt to revive intra-party policy discussions by
resurrecting the committee, which was effectively abolished by Ozawa when the
Hatoyama government was installed last September, and to reflect the
discussions in government policy.
DPJ lawmakers had been frustrated at what they perceived as a lack of
opportunity to engage in policy discussions under the previous Ozawa-led party
leadership, whose focus appeared to be on winning elections.
But the questions of how the government and the DPJ should divide their roles
and which should weigh more heavily remain to be sorted out. And with a double
role as a party policy chief and Cabinet minister, Gemba could find himself
caught in the middle.
Meanwhile, Kan's appointment of Sengoku as the new government spokesman and
former government revitalization minister Yukio Edano as new DPJ secretary
general have caused ripples within the party.
Sengoku may face difficulties securing the support of pro-Ozawa lawmakers in
pursuing government policy because of his critical stance toward Ozawa during a
scandal linked to the latter's political fund management body.
A senior upper house lawmaker questioned whether Edano possesses the ability to
be secretary general, a post that entails devising a winning election strategy
while keeping the party together.
A lawmaker close to Ozawa said the DPJ could become dysfunctional under Edano
given that the new secretary general has long been at odds with Ozawa, who
despite his resignation as secretary general still wields considerable clout in
the party as leader of a group of 150 lawmakers.
Even a lawmaker in the pro-Kan group questioned the appointments of Edano and
Sengoku on the grounds that both hail from a group headed by transport minister
Seiji Maehara, a former DPJ leader.
While Kan tapped for Cabinet posts many who have distanced themselves from
Ozawa, he made at least one move that could be seen as conciliatory to the
pro-Ozawa camp -- the promotion of senior vice farm minister Masahiko Yamada,
who is close to Ozawa, to farm minister.
Fresh faces like Edano and new government revitalization minister Renho could
help improve the DPJ's image which has been tarnished by Hatoyama and Ozawa,
whose funding scandals, and in Hatoyama's case, policy bungles, wrecked public
support for the previous Cabinet and the party.
But the dissatisfaction with the makeup of the new Cabinet and DPJ leadership
portend trouble ahead for the Kan government, with the upper house election
expected to be held next month.
Veteran DPJ lawmaker Kozo Watanabe, former vice speaker of the House of
Representatives, advised Kan during a meeting on Monday to place priority on
reconciliation within the party, not on demonstrating his leadership.
''While there have been phrases like 'Hatoyama DPJ' and 'Ozawa DPJ,' we don't
need factions like those in the Liberal Democratic Party,'' Watanabe said.
''What we ought to say is not 'Kan DPJ' but 'New-born DPJ'.''
==Kyodo
2010-06-08 23:55:28