Crisis not over for Japan PM after cabinet shuffle

TOKYO, Aug 28 (Reuters) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's new cabinet line-up of veteran lawmakers got a lukewarm reception from media and voters today, with newspapers warning that the crisis for the unpopular Japanese leader was far from over.

Abe, 52, his ratings in tatters after an election drubbing for his ruling camp last month, ditched most of his close allies and tapped experienced party heavyweights for key posts in Monday's sweeping cabinet reshuffle.

He also chose outgoing foreign minister Taro Aso, 66, a staunch supporter with his own ambitions to be premier, as the No. 2 executive in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Doubts run deep as to whether the changes will improve Abe's weak image or smooth his path in parliament, where a resurgent opposition won control of the upper house in a July 29 election.

''Even with the personnel changes, there is no change to the fact that the Abe administration is in a crisis,'' the Mainichi newspaper said.

Some voters said that while the new cabinet members were an improvement, Abe's own credentials were indelibly tarnished.

Abe's cabinet lost four members to gaffes and scandals in a mere 11 months, including one who committed suicide.

''This cabinet is better than the first 'buddy-buddy' cabinet,'' said Ryuichi Tsuruta, 55, who works for a car sales firm. ''But Abe himself has no leadership ability.'' Other voters said they hoped Abe, who took office last year stressing a conservative agenda including revising Japan's pacifist constitution and boosting its global role, now understood that they care more about pocket-book issues.

''What's important is that they respond to the people's needs on matters such as pensions and reducing the tax burden not just on companies but on individuals,'' said Seiichiro Mori, a 37-year-old employee at a life insurer in Tokyo. ''If they don't do that, they are going to lose the people's hearts.'' LACK OF CLARITY Abe appears to have got the message, but how that will play out in terms of concrete policies remains unclear.

In a news conference yesterday, Abe pledged to press ahead with economic reforms but also to address the pain of rural voters and others suffering from such policies.

The shift reflects fears that traditional LDP backers will desert the party in the next lower house general election.

No election for the lower house -- where the ruling coalition holds a huge majority -- need be held until autumn 2009, but some pundits say a deadlock in parliament could force a snap election, possibly even within the year.

Abe's apparent shift in policy priority has also raised concerns of backpedalling on efforts to cut Japan's huge public debt and of a return to the pork-barrel politics of the past.

''Some 'adjustments' to structural reforms that have gone too far are needed,'' said the conservative Yomiuri newspaper. ''But ...

there cannot be a slowdown or a setback in reforms, nor can there be handouts.'' Some media also complained the cabinet line-up was sending mixed messages on policy.

In an effort to showcase concern for the rural regions, Abe tapped Hiroya Masuda, a reform-minded former governor of a rural prefecture, as internal affairs minister and charged him with shrinking economic gaps between regions.

He also appointed Kaoru Yosano, a former trade and economics minister who is a proponent of fiscal reform, to the pivotal post of chief cabinet secretary, making him the government spokesman.

''Whether (the new cabinet) will boost the Abe administration is of course uncertain,'' the Mainichi said.

''By placing priority on a balance in the cabinet, there is a strong sense that the focus of what this administration wants to achieve is now blurred.'' REUTERS RC ND1104