mytest
UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
Hi Blog. Well done on TPR for getting this information out. Have a read. Get to know your government, because this one might be the one which is more attentive to the needs of the NJ communities. Regardless of bent, I myself have had the Cabinet and all their backgrounds posted on the wall of my loo, like I have had for every Cabinet since Koizumi 2003. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
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Hatoyama Officially becomes PM, Names Cabinet
TransPacific Radio.com Filed under: Japan in the News, Politics
Posted by Garrett DeOrio at 11:18 am on Thursday, September 17, 2009
As expected, Yukio Hatoyama officially became Japan’s 93rd Prime Minister yesterday and just the second since the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party was founded not to belong to it. Just as importantly, after roughly two weeks of managing to keep the press at bay and leaking little, if anything about the make-up of the new Cabinet, the new Prime Minister formed the first Cabinet since 1955 to contain no LDP members.
In fact, as promised, the new Cabinet is made up entirely of elected representatives. Every portfolio went to a DPJ member, with only two positions going to the DPJ’s partners: State Minister in Charge of Consumer Affairs and the Declining Birthrate to SDP head Mizuho Fukushima and State Minister in Charge of Financial and Postal Issues to People’s New Party chief Shizuka Kamei.
So, without further ado, the Cabinet:
Yukio Hatoyama, Prime Minister…
Rest at
http://www.transpacificradio.com/2009/09/17/hatoyama-officially-becomes-pm-names-cabinet/
5 comments on “TransPacific Radio gives background on PM Hatoyama Cabinet members”
i wonder why PM Hatoyama has not selected any NJ, or naturalized japanese for his cabinet? korea has already beat japan to the punch again. i wonder will i see any changes in my lifetime.
I like the fact that Nagatsuma (“Mister Nenkin”) was named Kousei Roudou Daijin (Minister of Labor and Health), as I point out here—> http://wp.me/pAT5P-Rh
Also, that Fukushima Mizuho got named to a position of weight in the cabinet. http://wp.me/pAT5P-Rb Since her party can effectively veto legislation in the Upper House now, it is good that she has an influential role in the new Japanese government.
What, no Minister for Racial Equality?
Debito, thanks.
Jim, do you have any naturalized Japanese in mind? As for NJ, racisal discrimination is one issue, nationality is another. Can you think of any non-US (or any other country) citizens in an American (or relevant adjective) Cabinet?
I, for one, am both impressed and hopeful that the Cabinet is all elected officials and the DPJ, so far, appears to be sticking to its commitments to political control of the policy process.
Kimpatsu, this is certainly the wrong place to say this and I’m sure I’ll get an earful from Debito next time we meet, but it’s simply not a Cabinet-level issue. How many countries have such a portfolio?
— Well, the US has a long history of bringing in Cabinet members with pretty diverse backgrounds, and even foreign citizenships. To wit: Heinz Alfred Kissinger (born in Germany, never lost his accent), Elaine Chao (Sec Labor under Bush II, born in Taiwan), Madeline Albright (born Czech and never gave it up), the unpronounceable (to anyone who wasn’t politically aware back then) Zbigniew Brzezinski, etc. Nineteen so far, according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign-born_United_States_Cabinet_Secretaries
In any case, our PM can appoint even non-elected people to the Cabinet. Dunno for certain, but I wonder if a Cabinet member even need be a citizen. Okay, we can dream, can’t we?
Looks fairly hopeful to me. We’ll have to see whether high hopes will be achieved, or will lose momentum early on, but given the new strength of the DPJ, I’ve got my hopes on the former, and there’s some great characters in the cabinet. Let’s just hope they hold their nerve. 🙂
I wouldn’t get too indignant about the lack of non-Japanese/naturalised citizens in the cabinet, really. Yes, it would have been nice to see Tsurunen up there, but there just aren’t that many foreign-born politicians in Japan. I mean, I can think of precious few foreign born cabinet members in my native UK.
There’s enough to be happy with here though.