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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Search Search: Japan's new PM takes power in historic shift AFP - Thursday, September 17 TOKYO (AFP) - - Japan's new centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama acclaimed a turning point in history on Wednesday as he took command of Asia's biggest economy with a pledge to return power to the people. ADVERTISEMENT The 62-year-old scion of a political dynasty was installed by parliament a fortnight after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended more than half a century of conservative dominance in a stunning election landslide. After naming his cabinet ministers, whose top priority is recovery from Japan's worst post-war economic recession, Hatoyama said he also wanted to redress the nation's long subservience to US foreign policy. "Immediately after I was appointed prime minister, I felt a tremor of excitement at a change in Japanese history, and on the other hand I felt a grave responsibility," he said at his first prime ministerial press conference. "We will probably face some trial and error, but I want to ask people to stay with us, patiently," he said. Reaffirming his campaign promise to build a gentler, more "fraternal" society, Hatoyama said: "We have to shift the country toward a people-oriented society. Toward that end, I will lead the way." Japan's usually risk-averse voters, tired with a stagnant political system and years of economic malaise, took a chance on the untested DPJ when they threw out the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on August 30. But while the party itself is unfamiliar with power, Hatoyama's cabinet lieutenants encompass years of experience. Hirohisa Fujii -- a 77-year-old former finance ministry bureaucrat who has attacked wasteful public spending -- was appointed finance minister, a post that he briefly held in the early 1990s. Katsuya Okada, 56, a former DPJ leader known as "Mr Clean" for his strait-laced image, was named foreign minister tasked with overhauling Japan's relations with the United States and Asia. Naoto Kan, a DPJ co-founder, was appointed deputy prime minister and head of the newly-formed National Strategy Bureau, which will have the crucial remit of wresting control over policy and budgets from the powerful state bureaucracy. The new defence minister is Toshimi Kitazawa, a senior party official who once opposed sending troops to Iraq for reconstruction work and accused George W. Bush's US administration of "enforcing democracy by military might". In opposition, the DPJ railed against US foreign policy and Hatoyama himself sparked consternation in Washington by recently penning an essay that attacked US-led globalisation. Hatoyama plans to review the US military presence in Japan and scrap a naval mission that supports US operations in Afghanistan. But he also said he wanted a "relationship of trust" and frankness with President Barack Obama. "I will not change our basic party position," he said at the news conference, ahead of his first talks with Obama at a series of international gatherings in the United States next week. "But this time, the main purpose of the meeting will be to build a trusting relationship." Defeated prime minister Taro Aso and his cabinet earlier resigned en masse, bringing the curtain down on a virtually uninterrupted period of LDP rule stretching back to the 1950s. The political sea-change comes a year after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers triggered the global economic crisis, which hit Japan's export-led economy hard and sent unemployment to a post-war high. Hatoyama, a wealthy US-trained engineer whose father and grandfather were both in politics, has promised to undo an "iron triangle" that existed between the LDP, big business and the state bureaucracy. He has pledged sweeping change, from boosting social welfare without raising taxes, to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and redefining Japan's place in the world by seeking closer ties with its Asian neighbours. "It will be the start of a new era," Hidekazu Kawai, political science professor emeritus of Gakushuin University, told AFP. "But that is not to say the public is euphoric. Voters are very cool and keenly watching whether the DPJ can pull off their agenda. The people are dissatisfied with the LDP. They are also anxious about the DPJ." Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Sign in to recommend this article » 0 users recommend Related Articles: Asia Pacific US ambassador walks streets of KabulAP - 1 hour 47 minutes ago Rights group: Free Myanmar prisoners before pollsAP - 2 hours 4 minutes ago Chinese envoy holds talks in North KoreaReuters - 2 hours 25 minutes ago Military van shot near US gold mine in IndonesiaAP - 2 hours 40 minutes ago SKorea: Any US-NKorea talks must deal with nukesAP - Thursday, September 17 Enlarge Photo Japan's new PM takes power in historic shift Most Popular – Asia Pacific Viewed Mafia sank boat with radioactive waste: official 'Dirty Dancing' star Patrick Swayze dead at 57 Obama lashes out at Wall Street Iraq shoe-thrower flies out after release Remains of Jesus-era synagogue found in Israel View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. 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