Unpopular Japan PM taps veterans for cabinet -media

By Staff
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TOKYO, Aug 27 (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has picked veteran lawmakers for key posts in a new cabinet line-up to be unveiled today, media said, to try to revive faltering support after a massive election defeat.

Abe's popularity has plummeted since he took office a year ago with an ambitious conservative agenda, slashed by scandals and gaffes by previous cabinet members that contributed to an opposition victory in a July upper house poll.

Japanese media said that Abe had selected former defence minister Fukushiro Nukaga to become finance minister and tapped ex-foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura, the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) biggest faction, to hold the foreign minister portfolio.

Former foreign minister Masahiko Komura will become Japan's new defence minister, replacing Yuriko Koike who last month became the country's first female defence chief.

Support for Abe, 52, has sunk as low as 22 per cent and pressure to resign will mount if the cabinet reshuffle fails to win public approval.

Abe's new cabinet will face a tough battle to get laws enacted, including a bill to extend a navy mission in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan, since opposition parties won control of parliament's upper house in a July 29 election.

Financial market players are seeking clues as to whether Japan will press on with market-oriented reforms and efforts to cut its huge public debt after the opposition's successful appeal to voters who felt left behind by policy changes.

NEW JOB FOR ASO Ahead of the cabinet reshuffle, outspoken Foreign Minister Taro Aso, a close ally and would-be prime minister who shares many of Abe's conservative policy goals, was chosen as LDP secretary general, the party's number two post.

The 66-year-old political veteran is well-known as a fan of ''manga'' comics, but has stirred controversy with verbal blunders.

''The important issue for the LDP is how to restore confidence in the party,'' Aso told a news conference after his appointment to the party post. ''What we must do is show how we will deal with the people's anxiety about the future.'' Aso gave a nod to the anger felt in Japan's rural regions, many of which have suffered from reductions in public works spending as the government tries to rein in its huge debt.

''When reforms take place too quickly, vested interests are destroyed and there is pain. When the pain hits too quickly, it needs to be treated with measures such as shots to get rid of the pain or a blood transfusion,'' he said.

Abe has decided to appoint former trade minister Kaoru Yosano, 69, as his chief cabinet secretary, media reported.

The holder of the heavyweight portfolio acts as liaison between the administration and the ruling parties and serves as top government spokesman.

Abe's previous cabinet, packed with close allies, was caught up in financial scandals and gaffes, casting doubt on his leadership and contributing to the ballot-box drubbing.

Government mishandling of records of millions of premiums paid into the public pension system by voters - already worried about how their rapidly ageing country will care for them in their old age - was another big factor behind the election loss.

Abe has been accused of focusing too much on his conservative agenda including revising the pacifist constitution and forging a bigger global security role for Japan, while voters worried about bread-and-butter issues such as pensions and health care.

REUTERS RN BD1142

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