Newly-appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano on Wednesday announced the lineup of the new cabinet.
Former Finance Ministry bureaucrat Hirohisa Fujii and former Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Secretary General Katsuya Okada, among others, were appointed respectively to the posts of finance minister and foreign minister.
DPJ Acting President Naoto Kan was tapped as minister in charge of the National Strategy Bureau, a new body to be set up to lay out budgets and basic policies, and Hatoyama's top aide Hirofumi Hirano, as chief cabinet secretary.
In the DPJ-led coalition cabinet, Mizuho Fukushima, president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), became minister in charge of consumer affairs, the declining birthrate, food safety and gender equality, and Shizuka Kamei, leader of the People's New Party (PNP) , was appointed to a new ministerial post overseeing postal and financial affairs.
The new cabinet will be formally launched later Wednesday following an attestation ceremony at the Imperial Palace.
Earlier in the day, Yukio Hatoyama, president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), was elected as Japan's 93rd prime minister in the special session of the bicameral Diet, succeeding Taro Aso of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
On Wednesday morning, Former Prime Minister Taro Aso and 17 other cabinet ministers resigned en masse ahead of the launch of a DPJ-led government.
Aso, who also resigned as LDP president, launched his cabinet on Sept. 24, 2008, following the abrupt resignation of his predecessor Yasuo Fukuda. His administration lasted nearly a year.
In the historic general election on Aug. 30, the DPJ won by a landslide, breaking the half-century lock of the LDP on power. Japan has thus witnessed a real change of government for the first time in the postwar era.
(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2009)
