New Japanese PM faces challenges
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Japan's parliament installed Naoto Kan as its new prime minister on Friday, handing the outspoken populist the job of rallying his party and reclaiming its mandate for change ahead of elections next month.
The new Japanese leader is friendly to China and will continue to push for better bilateral relations, Chinese analysts said.
Kan, a 63-year-old political veteran with a reputation for confronting Japan's powerful bureaucrats, succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down on Wednesday after squandering the public's high hopes with broken campaign promises and financial scandals.
"My task is to rebuild this nation," said Kan, who served as Hatoyama's finance minister.
Kan must now contend with a daunting list of problems. The world's No 2 economy is burdened with the largest public debt in the industrialized world, sluggish growth and an aging, shrinking population.
But more urgently, with upper house elections looming in July, Kan will need to convince voters of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's competence.
"We will work together as one in the face of the tough political situation and the upcoming upper house elections and fight together unified," Kan said to party members.
"Our first priority is to regain the trust of the people."
On foreign policy, Kan described the relationship with the United States as vital, but also stressed the importance of Asian neighbors.
To that effect, the new Japanese Cabinet will maintain good relations with China, Chinese analysts said.
"Though Kan did not say much about China on Friday, he is actually a China expert and has been very active in forging a good relationship between Tokyo and Beijing," said Liu Jiangyong of Tsinghua University.
Kan is one of the few Japanese leaders to publicly object to the independence of Taiwan. He also admitted to the Japanese invasion of China in World War II and said his country should apologize for its wartime aggression.
Kan's stance is based on his deep understanding of China, Liu said. Kan first visited China in 1977 with a group of Japanese politicians.
He was also among a 3,000-strong Japanese youth delegation to China in 1984. That was when he first met President Hu Jintao, who was then head of the China Youth League and in charge of the event's reception.
Since then, Kan has visited China dozens of times. He was always received by Chinese leaders and developed a "very deep friendship and trusting relationship" with them, as Chinese media reported.
Kan reportedly also invited Chinese students in Japan to his home to make dumplings during Chinese New Year celebrations.
"Just like Hatoyama, he will continue the soft policies toward China," Liu said.
Geng Xin, a Chinese scholar living in Japan, agreed with Liu.
"It's a change in leaders, not in the ruling party Besides, Kan has long objected to former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine," Geng said.
The shrine honors Japan's war dead, including 14 class-A war criminals.
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