<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=593><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=452><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>Top Print Edition Stories
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published September 17, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Businesses fret as PM Hatoyama takes charge
No major surprises in line-up but some Cabinet appointees may cause unease
By ANTHONY ROWLEY
IN TOKYO
<TABLE class=storyLinks border=0 cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
DECLARING that he was 'thrilled to be making history', Yukio Hatoyama yesterday became the first Japanese prime minister in postwar history to be elected from outside the ranks of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party after his Democratic Party of Japan defeated the LDP in a landslide general election last month.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>New guard: Mr Hatoyama's Cabinet after yesterday's inauguration. To offset fears of inexperience in his Cabinet, Mr Hatoyama picked many political veterans </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The 62-year-old political veteran later announced a Cabinet line-up which contained no major surprises, although some of the appointments seemed likely to provoke unease within the Japanese business and financial community.
Mr Hatoyama chose to staff his new Cabinet largely with political veterans - a number of them septuagenarians - in order to offset fears that the first non-LDP government in more than 50 years could be too inexperienced to take the helm of the Japanese ship of state firmly in hand.
Some of Mr Hatoyama's policy agenda and his recent pledge to reduce Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 from their 1990 levels, have alarmed businessmen and brought claims from opposition politicians that they will 'bankrupt' Japan.
Yesterday's announcement that the post of minister for postal and financial affairs will go to political veteran Shizuka Kamei, 72, who heads the small People's Party that Mr Hatoyama has drawn into coalition with the DPJ, will add to such unease, analysts said.
Mr Kamei has no previous experience in finance portfolio but is an implacable opponent of former (LDP) prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's plans to privatise Japan's huge postal system. The privatisation is 'as good as dead' now, one former senior financial official told The Business Times.
Mr Kamei has also stirred controversy by calling on banks to declare a loan repayment moratorium for the legions of small businesses struggling to survive in the current economic recession. Bank shares fell yesterday even as the Nikkei stock average rose modestly.
The job of defence minister, which Mr Kamei had been in line for until earlier this week, went instead to a relatively unknown politician, Toshimi Kitazawa who supports Japan's Pacifist constitution and who opposed troop despatch to Iraq under the LDP from 2004-06.
Ex-police chief Mr Kamei's views on aspects of the US-Japan relationship are understood to have ruled him out as defence minister. Nevertheless, the status of some 47,000 US military personnel in Japan is expected to come under review by the new government.
Meanwhile, financial markets may be reassured by the appointment of Hirohisa Fujii, 77, as Finance Minister, analysts said. An expert in financial and fiscal policy, he served as a finance ministry official and as finance minister in the Hosokawa government that came to power briefly in 1993-94 when LDP rebels joined with opposition forces to form a coalition.
The Japanese government bond market is expected be relieved that someone with such a background as Mr Fujii's is there to keep the new government's spending plans - on family allowances and in other areas - in check, some suggested.
But Mr Fujii's control over the budget process appears likely to be restricted by the formation of a National Strategy Bureau headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Naoto Kan. This will set the framework for compiling the budget to meet the policy objectives of the new government.
Mr Fujii's comment yesterday that a stronger yen could have 'some merits' for Japan, provided it does not strengthen rapidly, is likely to cause dismay among Japanese exporters who have already experienced dramatic falls in overseas orders and profits. The yen approached a seven month high of 90.48 to the dollar in Tokyo yesterday.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Published September 17, 2009
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=452 colSpan=2>Businesses fret as PM Hatoyama takes charge
No major surprises in line-up but some Cabinet appointees may cause unease
By ANTHONY ROWLEY
IN TOKYO
<TABLE class=storyLinks border=0 cellSpacing=4 cellPadding=1 width=136 align=right><TBODY><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Email this article</TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Print article </TD></TR><TR class=font10><TD width=20 align=right>
</TD><TD>Feedback</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>DECLARING that he was 'thrilled to be making history', Yukio Hatoyama yesterday became the first Japanese prime minister in postwar history to be elected from outside the ranks of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party after his Democratic Party of Japan defeated the LDP in a landslide general election last month.
<TABLE class=picBoxL cellSpacing=2 width=100 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR class=caption><TD>New guard: Mr Hatoyama's Cabinet after yesterday's inauguration. To offset fears of inexperience in his Cabinet, Mr Hatoyama picked many political veterans </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The 62-year-old political veteran later announced a Cabinet line-up which contained no major surprises, although some of the appointments seemed likely to provoke unease within the Japanese business and financial community.Mr Hatoyama chose to staff his new Cabinet largely with political veterans - a number of them septuagenarians - in order to offset fears that the first non-LDP government in more than 50 years could be too inexperienced to take the helm of the Japanese ship of state firmly in hand.
Some of Mr Hatoyama's policy agenda and his recent pledge to reduce Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 from their 1990 levels, have alarmed businessmen and brought claims from opposition politicians that they will 'bankrupt' Japan.
Yesterday's announcement that the post of minister for postal and financial affairs will go to political veteran Shizuka Kamei, 72, who heads the small People's Party that Mr Hatoyama has drawn into coalition with the DPJ, will add to such unease, analysts said.
Mr Kamei has no previous experience in finance portfolio but is an implacable opponent of former (LDP) prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's plans to privatise Japan's huge postal system. The privatisation is 'as good as dead' now, one former senior financial official told The Business Times.
Mr Kamei has also stirred controversy by calling on banks to declare a loan repayment moratorium for the legions of small businesses struggling to survive in the current economic recession. Bank shares fell yesterday even as the Nikkei stock average rose modestly.
The job of defence minister, which Mr Kamei had been in line for until earlier this week, went instead to a relatively unknown politician, Toshimi Kitazawa who supports Japan's Pacifist constitution and who opposed troop despatch to Iraq under the LDP from 2004-06.
Ex-police chief Mr Kamei's views on aspects of the US-Japan relationship are understood to have ruled him out as defence minister. Nevertheless, the status of some 47,000 US military personnel in Japan is expected to come under review by the new government.
Meanwhile, financial markets may be reassured by the appointment of Hirohisa Fujii, 77, as Finance Minister, analysts said. An expert in financial and fiscal policy, he served as a finance ministry official and as finance minister in the Hosokawa government that came to power briefly in 1993-94 when LDP rebels joined with opposition forces to form a coalition.
The Japanese government bond market is expected be relieved that someone with such a background as Mr Fujii's is there to keep the new government's spending plans - on family allowances and in other areas - in check, some suggested.
But Mr Fujii's control over the budget process appears likely to be restricted by the formation of a National Strategy Bureau headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Naoto Kan. This will set the framework for compiling the budget to meet the policy objectives of the new government.
Mr Fujii's comment yesterday that a stronger yen could have 'some merits' for Japan, provided it does not strengthen rapidly, is likely to cause dismay among Japanese exporters who have already experienced dramatic falls in overseas orders and profits. The yen approached a seven month high of 90.48 to the dollar in Tokyo yesterday.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
