Fujimura to become Japan's chief Cabinet secretary+

TOKYO, Sept. 1 Kyodo -
Japan's incoming Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Thursday tapped Osamu Fujimura, one of the lawmakers closest to the premier-elect, as the top government spokesman, in the hope of raising his profile and promoting policies to tackle a host of challenges the country is encountering.
The 54-year-old Noda, head of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, is aiming to launch his Cabinet on Friday, while carefully considering who can best help him achieve his goals of restoring Japan's deteriorating fiscal health and reconstructing areas hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Fujimura, 61, served as DPJ deputy secretary general and the head of Noda's group within the party. He will take on the post of chief Cabinet secretary, who will be in charge of coordinating policies within the government and conveying Noda's views to the public.
The six-term lower house lawmaker was told by the premier-in-waiting, ''Finally, you're the one,'' and he accepted Noda's offer, Fujimura told reporters.
Noda, who won the DPJ's presidential race Monday, has vowed to bolster unity within the party, which has long been beleaguered by internal divisions mainly between supporters and adversaries of DPJ kingpin Ichiro Ozawa, an opponent of tax increases.
The new DPJ leader has apparently been trying to ease the conflict by installing in key party jobs lawmakers close to Ozawa, a political competitor of departing Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
Noda is a proponent of tax increases, like Kan, to combat Japan's ballooning debt, currently twice the size of the country's gross domestic product, and to finance the huge additional costs of the largest reconstruction work since the years after World War II.
In an effort to unite the ruling party, Noda on Wednesday appointed Azuma Koshiishi, a close ally of Ozawa, to the DPJ's No. 2 post of secretary general. The 75-year-old leader of the caucus of DPJ legislators in the House of Councillors is believed to work for unity among lawmakers, especially in the upper house.
Prior to the start of an extraordinary parliamentary session in mid-September, the third-youngest premier in the nation's postwar history also made efforts Thursday to strengthen cooperation with opposition parties' chiefs.
Noda called on the leaders of two key opposition parties to help create a framework to discuss how to grapple with pressing issues such as the reconstruction of areas devastated by the quake-tsunami disaster.
Noda told reporters after separate meetings with Sadakazu Tanigaki, head of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, and Natsuo Yamaguchi, chief of the New Komeito party, that he made the proposal on interparty policy talks, which would also address the third extra budget for fiscal 2011.
The budget is designed to finance full-fledged work to rebuild areas affected by the March disaster that ravaged vast areas of northeastern Japan.
In talks with Tanigaki, Noda did not mention the idea of forming a grand coalition, LDP Secretary General Nobuteru Ishihara told reporters.
While promising cooperation in rebuilding work, Tanigaki urged Noda to dissolve the lower house at an early date, a participant in the meeting said.