Japan's PM targets financial reform
Source: Agencies |
September 3, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
JAPANESE Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pledged to quickly target fiscal reforms to rein in the country's huge debt as he took power yesterday, but - in a nod to worries about tax rises - said he would be realistic about such measures.
Noda, 54, picked a relative lightweight lawmaker for the key finance minister post in a sign he will call the economic policy shots, including the cost of paying for rebuilding after the devastating March earthquake and tsunami and looking at ways to tame a surging yen, which has gained nearly 5 percent against the dollar in the past two months.
"We can lose no time in reforming public finances. But we will respond in a realistic manner. We have to have a good balance between growth and fiscal reform," Noda told a news conference.
Noda, a former finance minister elected this week as Japan's sixth prime minister in five years, named 49-year-old Jun Azumi, a former parliamentary affairs chief, for the finance portfolio after his first choice turned it down.
"If he were a veteran lawmaker, the new finance minister might have clashed with Noda on some issues. But that appears not to be the case and the choice is likely a sign Noda will pursue his own policies on economic and fiscal issues," said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute.
Noda, an unassuming conservative who has compared himself to the "dojo" loach, a bottom-feeding fish, faces a long list of challenges.
These include dragging the world's third-largest economy out of stagnation, forging a new energy policy while ending a radiation crisis at a crippled nuclear plant, rebuilding the tsunami-devastated northeast and finding funds to pay for that and the vast costs of social welfare in an aging society.
He also has to manage public debt which is double the size of the country's US$5 trillion economy.
He must also navigate a divided parliament where the opposition controls the upper house and can block bills, while trying to smooth over rifts within his party.
"As with the 'loach,' we will sweat, get covered with mud but get the work done and push politics forward," new Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said after announcing the cabinet line-up.
Azumi, who hails from the tsunami-hit town of Ishinomaki in northeast Japan, led the Democrats' campaign in an upper house election in 2010 that they lost badly, handing opposition parties a majority. The former NHK public TV announcer served previously as vice defense minister but little is known about his views on fiscal policy.
His first task will be to oversee drafting of a third extra budget to fund reconstruction from the March disasters.
The finance portfolio is probably the toughest cabinet job as the minister has to try to contain ballooning debt while seeking to stimulate growth. Noda settled on Azumi after his first choice, former DPJ secretary general Katsuya Okada, declined.
As trade minister, Noda appointed Yoshio Hachiro, a former parliamentary affairs chief who once belonged to the leftist Social Democratic Party. He will play a key role as Japan works out a national energy policy in the wake of the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years at the tsunami-hit Fukushima plant.
Noda, 54, picked a relative lightweight lawmaker for the key finance minister post in a sign he will call the economic policy shots, including the cost of paying for rebuilding after the devastating March earthquake and tsunami and looking at ways to tame a surging yen, which has gained nearly 5 percent against the dollar in the past two months.
"We can lose no time in reforming public finances. But we will respond in a realistic manner. We have to have a good balance between growth and fiscal reform," Noda told a news conference.
Noda, a former finance minister elected this week as Japan's sixth prime minister in five years, named 49-year-old Jun Azumi, a former parliamentary affairs chief, for the finance portfolio after his first choice turned it down.
"If he were a veteran lawmaker, the new finance minister might have clashed with Noda on some issues. But that appears not to be the case and the choice is likely a sign Noda will pursue his own policies on economic and fiscal issues," said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute.
Noda, an unassuming conservative who has compared himself to the "dojo" loach, a bottom-feeding fish, faces a long list of challenges.
These include dragging the world's third-largest economy out of stagnation, forging a new energy policy while ending a radiation crisis at a crippled nuclear plant, rebuilding the tsunami-devastated northeast and finding funds to pay for that and the vast costs of social welfare in an aging society.
He also has to manage public debt which is double the size of the country's US$5 trillion economy.
He must also navigate a divided parliament where the opposition controls the upper house and can block bills, while trying to smooth over rifts within his party.
"As with the 'loach,' we will sweat, get covered with mud but get the work done and push politics forward," new Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said after announcing the cabinet line-up.
Azumi, who hails from the tsunami-hit town of Ishinomaki in northeast Japan, led the Democrats' campaign in an upper house election in 2010 that they lost badly, handing opposition parties a majority. The former NHK public TV announcer served previously as vice defense minister but little is known about his views on fiscal policy.
His first task will be to oversee drafting of a third extra budget to fund reconstruction from the March disasters.
The finance portfolio is probably the toughest cabinet job as the minister has to try to contain ballooning debt while seeking to stimulate growth. Noda settled on Azumi after his first choice, former DPJ secretary general Katsuya Okada, declined.
As trade minister, Noda appointed Yoshio Hachiro, a former parliamentary affairs chief who once belonged to the leftist Social Democratic Party. He will play a key role as Japan works out a national energy policy in the wake of the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years at the tsunami-hit Fukushima plant.
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