Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda was due to be sworn in on Friday and name a cabinet with which he hopes to drive a fragile post-quake recovery forward and build party unity.

Noda was elected Japan's sixth prime minister in five years Tuesday, inheriting the daunting challenges of disaster recovery, a nuclear crisis, a soaring yen and a ballooning public debt.

His predecessor Naoto Kan resigned after 14 months in office under fierce criticism of his administration's handling of the atomic crisis.

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 tens of thousands from their homes, made some rural areas uninhabitable for years, and contaminated food supplies, some of which have entered the market.

Noda is expected to name his cabinet before being officially sworn in by Emperor Akihito on Friday.

He has stressed his credentials as an ordinary man without political star power or looks, and promised to be a peacemaker who will engage the opposition.

His priority is the passing of a third budget, expected to amount to more than 10 trillion yen ($130 billion), to pay for post-March 11 reconstruction as he looks to revive an economy that has contracted for three straight quarters.

Noda has called for higher taxes to fund Japan's post-quake rebuild and help tackle a debt running at more than 200 percent of GDP, the world's highest public debt to GDP ratio.

But analysts warn that he will struggle to stop Japan's revolving door of leadership, blamed for eroding the presence of the world's third-largest economy on the international stage and delaying much needed reforms.

Noda has pledged to be a peacemaker in the ruling centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which is deeply split between supporters and foes of veteran powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, indicted in a political funding scandal.

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

His choice of cabinet ministers will be scrutinised for clues as to how he will attempt to secure cooperation from the opposition Liberal Democratic Party while healing rifts in a DPJ hamstrung by factional infighting.

As the DPJ's new president, Noda has given the number-two post of secretary-general to Azuma Koshiishi, a lawmaker who is close to Ozawa.

The new premier also named Hirofumi Hirano, 62 -- a close aide to Ozawa ally and ex-premier Yukio Hatoyama -- to an influential post, that of the DPJ's parliamentary affairs chief.

Noda gave the post of DPJ policy chief to one of the four candidates he defeated in Monday's ballot -- the ex-foreign minister Seiji Maehara.

Tweet

Related Links Democracy in the 21st century at TerraDaily.com