FOCUS: Aso takes charge as 'strong' leader in run-up to likely election+

TOKYO, Sept. 24 Kyodo - New Prime Minister Taro Aso took charge of the Japanese government Wednesday by playing up his image as a ''strong'' leader, choosing mostly low-key politicians to make up his Cabinet.

While Aso is certain to try to take advantage of his popularity in the lead-up
to the general election expected in the coming months, pundits say his one-man
leadership among chummy Cabinet members may not necessarily work for the
struggling Liberal Democratic Party.
Aso, who won the LDP presidential election Monday and was chosen Wednesday in
the Diet as Japan's new prime minister to replace Yasuo Fukuda, said in his
first press conference after taking the helm that he intends to make Japan
''strong.''
''I take this crisis in which people feel insecure regarding the economy,
dissatisfied with their lives and distrustful of politics very seriously, and
believe my mission is to make Japan a bright and strong country,'' Aso said.
''I will stand up to difficult issues by drawing on all my experience,'' he said.
Aso made the remarks before reading out the members of his Cabinet himself,
although this is normally done by the chief Cabinet secretary -- a move
apparently seen as a demonstration of his leadership.
New Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said at a separate news conference
shortly afterward that Aso may have chosen him as top government spokesman as
he would make the leader stand out.
''The prime minister has strong leadership (qualities) and is rather showy,
although this term may be misunderstood, while I am more on the somber side,''
said Kawamura, a former education minister. ''I suppose he thought I would be
suitable to serve as a foil for him.''
Aso chose former LDP policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa, who shares the leader's
conservative and hawkish views, for the posts of both finance minister and
financial services minister, and former education minister Hirofumi Nakasone as
foreign minister.
Kunio Hatoyama, a former justice minister who was at the forefront in
supporting Aso in the party leadership race, was appointed as internal affairs
and communications minister.
The prime minister also picked 34-year-old Yuko Obuchi, daughter of the late
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, as minister in charge of tackling the declining
birthrate, making her the youngest postwar Cabinet member.
Asked about criticism even from within the ruling coalition that the
appointments appear to have been rewards for backing Aso in the LDP
presidential election, Kawamura said he believes the right persons have been
placed in the right jobs and that it is a Cabinet that will do its work while
eyeing the upcoming general election.
But Yasunori Sone, a political science professor at Keio University, said the
new Cabinet gives the impression of being a ''private business operation'' in
which Aso alone is highly visible.
Political analyst Minoru Morita also described the Cabinet as having a one-man
leadership structure, much like the government under Aso's grandfather Shigeru
Yoshida, who was prime minister in the 1940s and 1950s.
But Morita predicted it will be a short-lived administration that may well be
displaced by the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan if it defeats the
LDP in the House of Representatives election.
The ruling coalition of the LDP and the New Komeito party has already yielded
control of the House of Councillors to the opposition bloc after losing the
upper house election in July last year.
While a general election does not have to be held until next September when the
terms of lower house members expire, Aso may well call an election in the
coming months to take advantage of any boost in public support for the new
administration.
Morita said the Aso Cabinet lacks LDP veterans who could add a sense of
''stateliness'' to the body, making it ''easy'' for DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa to
form a new shadow Cabinet that would seem more substantial.
Aso faces the challenge of boosting public support for the LDP after abrupt
resignation announcements by his two immediate predecessors -- Fukuda and
Shinzo Abe -- after less than a year in office hurt the ruling party's image.
DPJ Acting President Naoto Kan said in a meeting of party executives Wednesday,
''The LDP is not qualified to receive a (Diet) nomination for prime minister as
two of its leaders in a row have thrown away their administrations. We will
have the people decide (who should run Japan) in a general election.''