New DPJ leadership launched, PM-elect chooses No.2
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The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) launched its new leadership Monday ahead of DPJ President Naoto Kan and prime minster-elect's official inauguration of a new Cabinet on Tuesday.
Yukio Edano, 46, will replace Ichiro Ozawa, the political kingpin, colloquially known as "The Shadow Shogun," responsible for orchestrating the DPJ's rise to power last September, as Secretary General and Kan's right-hand man.
Edano is known as one of the DPJ's top policy authorities and has built a reputation for critically assessing government programs and slashing wasteful spending. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 at age 29 and is currently serving his sixth term in parliament.
Edano, as well as Yoshito Sengoku who will be chief cabinet secretary in Kan's government, has been a vocal critic of his predecessor's covert, back room antics and stealthy political power brokering.
The DPJ's party's policy research council has been reestablished by the DPJ leader in a bid to achieve party cohesion and solidarity and Koichiro Gemba will head the council whilst concurrently serving as the party's civil service reform minister.
Gemba was first elected to the lower house in 1993 and joined the moves to establish the DPJ in 1998. He is a staunch advocator of fiscal reform and a supporter of then finance minister Kan's push for a 5 percent consumption tax hike to combat the nation's flagging economy and chip away and Japan's burgeoning national debt.
Other key posts selected by Kan, himself elected DPJ President on Friday, were also approved Monday at a meeting of all party parliamentarians and included Shinji Tarutoko, a formerly unknown lawmaker who was Kan's sole opponent in Friday's DPJ leadership race.
Tarutoko became the new Diet affairs chief, as the party hastily tries to transform its tainted image associated with Hatoyama and Ozawa's monumental foibles.
The DPJ's approval ratings have jumped since Kan was chosen by parliament to replace Hatoyama. The former prime minister announced he would be resigning on June 2, following his failure to honor election promises including the relocation of a U.S. air base in Okinawa and his and Ozawa's involvement in political funds scandals, which resulted in public support for the former DPJ leader plunging to below 20 percent.
