WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Japan's Democrats to sign off on key cabinet picks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-07 10:07 TOKYO: Top executives of Japan's new ruling party were expected to sign off on their leader's choices for key cabinet posts on Monday, a week after the Democratic Party's landslide victory in a national election. Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama, who will take office on September 16, said he had picked Naoto Kan, a 62-year-old former health minister, to head a powerful new agency that will oversee the budget process and set policy priorities.
The huge election win by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and breaks a deadlock in parliament, ushering in a government that has promised to focus spending on consumers, cut waste and reduce the power of bureaucrats. But some analysts worry that the Democrats' spending plans could inflate a public debt already about 170 percent of GDP, the highest among advanced countries. Japanese media have reported that Hirohisa Fujii, 77, a former finance minister, would probably be chosen to hold the same key post in Hatoyama's cabinet. But it was unclear whether the choice would be finalised before Hatoyama cements a proposed coalition with tiny parties whose cooperation is needed to control parliament's upper house.
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