Yoshihiko Noda became Japan's sixth new prime minister in five years Tuesday, inheriting an in-tray groaning with disaster recovery, nuclear crisis and economic gloom in the ageing, debt-choked nation.

The outgoing finance minister takes the place of Naoto Kan, who resigned after just 15 months in office with rock-bottom poll ratings, perpetuating the country's chronic revolving-door leadership at a time of national crisis.

Noda became his centre-left party's third premier, two years to the day since it won a landslide election that ended a half-century of conservative rule -- and at a time of deep voter disenchantment with all major parties.

He was elected premier by both houses of parliament a day after winning a party leadership battle that was fought along factional lines rather than on the five candidates' policy positions or their voter popularity.

Noda, a 54-year-old who was relatively unknown to the electorate, conceded that, based on his looks and charisma, he would not win many votes, instead painting himself as moderate and steadfast, if a little bland.

In a display of humility, Noda stressed that he is an ordinary man without political star power or looks, and promised to be a peacemaker who will unite the deeply divided party and seek to engage the opposition.

The DPJ is deeply split between backers and enemies of scandal-tainted powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa. Noda won the poll after anti-Ozawa factions settled on him as a compromise choice to defeat their opponent's candidate.

As Noda started putting together his new cabinet and DPJ leadership team, he approached figures from the Ozawa camp in a bid to heal the rifts.

Azuma Koshiishi, a senior upper house lawmaker with close ties to Ozawa, said he had accepted the DPJ's number two post of secretary general.

The problems Noda faces would be daunting even for the boldest of leaders.

Half a year after Japan was hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami, the Fukushima nuclear crisis continues, and operator Tokyo Electric Power Company is struggling to bring the reactors to cold shutdown by January.

The radiation that has escaped from its reactors has driven more than 80,000 people from their homes, made some rural areas uninhabitable for years, and contaminated food supplies, some of which have entered the market.

The disaster hit at a time when Japan, a rapidly ageing society, has been stuck in cycles of slow economic growth and deflation for two decades.

The country faces a public debt mountain twice the size of the $5-trillion economy, the legacy of years of stimulus spending, and the bill is set to grow as Japan rebuilds its disaster-hit areas.

On top of these woes, the economy has been hit by a strong yen, which has soared to post-war highs as a safe haven currency amid global market turmoil, hurting Japan's exporters by making their goods less competitive.

As finance minister since June last year, Noda has promoted raising taxes rather than borrowing to pay for quake and nuclear disaster relief, and to reduce the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the industrialised world.

"We still have problems with the yen's appreciation and with deflation," Noda told reporters Tuesday. "On the topic of fiscal discipline, we need to carry out careful management of the economy and public finances."

On the question of nuclear power, which his predecessor Kan wanted to phase out following the Fukushima disaster, Noda has said that currently shut-down reactors should be restarted once they are deemed safe.

On the foreign policy front, like most of his political peers in Japan, Noda has stated his support for a strong US security alliance and voiced concern about China's rising military spending and growing naval assertiveness.

Noda angered Japan's neighbours, also including South Korea, when he said this month that Japan's World War II leaders convicted by the allied tribunal should not be seen as war criminals because they have paid for their sins.

On Tuesday Noda, who has stressed the economic interdependence of the region's nations, said he wants "win-win relations" with South Korea and China.

A South Korean foreign ministry spokesman said: "We expect to continue to forge mature and future-oriented relationships with the new Japanese government led by Prime Minister Noda as it looks squarely at its past."

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