BRIEFING: Japan's new leader in uphill fight

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TOKYO -- Japan's new prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, who took power Tuesday, is vowing to restore public trust in the government, revitalize the teetering Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and continue an anti-terror naval mission.

However, Mr. Fukuda must face an empowered opposition, which now controls the upper house. The LDP suffered a crushing defeat in late July under his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, who abruptly stepped down for a health reason. He was hospitalized with exhaustion and stress-related stomach ailments.

Mr. Abe pressed ahead with a nationalist agenda while the public was more concerned with bread-and-butter issues such as pensions and jobs. Mr. Fukuda wants to narrow the widening gaps between major cities and provinces and to help those who feel left out with market reforms and budget tightening.

Unlike Mr. Abe, who rose to power by taking a strong stance against North Korea, Mr. Fukuda seeks closer ties with other Asian countries and is open to negotiation with North Korea, while maintaining a pro-U.S. stance.

Mr. Fukuda was first elected a lower house member in 1990 after working for an oil company and serving as a secretary for his father, Takeo, who was prime minister in the late 1970s. He served as chief Cabinet secretary under Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Yoshiro Mori, but he has never headed a ministry.

Mr. Fukuda, who had been endorsed by eight of the party's nine faction leaders to become prime minister, appointed current and former faction leaders to two minister posts and all the four LDP top executive posts. Some critics say such practices indicate a return to factional politics, old ways of doing business in the party.

"Not at all," said Ellis Krauss, professor of Japanese politics and policy-making at the University of California at San Diego. "Today, as a result of the weakening and changes in factions after the 1994 electoral reform, things are very different. Some members of the factions supporting Fukuda are supporting [the party's Secretary General Taro] Aso. Faction leaders can't dictate who they should support."

Kazuhisa Kawakami, a political science professor at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, said Mr. Fukuda is more politically savvy than he looks.

"Though Mr. Fukuda usually shows no expression, he carefully listens," said Mr. Kawakami, who graduated from Azabu High in Tokyo, the same alma mater as Mr. Fukuda's. Mr. Fukuda used to be called "Ninja Hattori-kun," a popular Japanese animation character, he said.

"I believe he will listen to the main opposition Democratic Party Japan (DPJ) and work with them without seeming to do so, just like a ninja," said Mr. Kawakami. "Mr. Fukuda will try to have fewer differing opinions from the DPJ so that the public could wonder why the DPJ needs to take the reins of government."