Updated on
Summary New premier Yoshihiko Noda wants to curb Japan's huge public debt.
Japans parliament voted in a new prime minister on Tuesday, perhaps the last, best chance for the ruling Democratic Party to begin pulling the country out of decades of stagnation.Yoshihiko Noda, a 54-year-old former finance minister who wants to curb Japans huge public debt, becomes the countrys sixth prime minister in five years.While tackling myriad ills dogging the worlds third-biggest economy, he must unify warring factions in his own party and win over the opposition, which can block bills in parliament.The hurdles to governing are high and the policy problems legion, but some optimists suggest that the low-key Noda might succeed where his combative predecessor Naoto Kan failed.In Japanese tradition, the less lustrous politicians have tended to be more effective, said Andrew Horvat, director of the Stanford Japan Center in Kyoto, comparing Noda to the late Keizo Obuchi, who was dubbed cold pizza when he took office in 1998 but used his Everyman image to win voter support.This is not a time for big talk and inappropriate action.Nodas unassuming image contrasts with that of the famously irascible Kan, while his humble origins -- his parents were both from poor farming families -- set him off from the Democrats first prime minister, the aristocratic Yukio Hatoyama.But other analysts warn that the compromises Noda needs to win over opponents in the party -- he was one of five candidates for PM -- could dilute his fiscal reform agenda. He placed second in the first round of party voting and only won in the run-off.The novice Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) swept to power just two years ago promising to change how Japan is governed but quickly faltered due to diplomatic missteps, policy flip flops, internal bickering -- and the sheer scale of Japans problems.Now, as its third prime minister takes power, the DPJs support rates lag behind those of its main rival, the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). If Noda fails, his party would probably lose the next general election, which must be held by late 2013.
