New questions [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn]

Japan's finance minister Yoshihiko Noda, who was chosen by the ruling Democratic Party (DPJ) as its leader on August 29, became the country's new prime minister Tuesday. This is a compromise of intra-party politics. The scattered public support, the old and new economic and political disputes cast a shadow over the new government.

According to public opinion in Japan, Noda was a dark horse for the premiership. Following Ken's resignation, former foreign minister Seiji Maehara and economy, trade and industry minister Banri Kaieda had been tipped for the top job. Maehara is famous for his frankness, his youth and the public support he enjoys, while Kaieda had support from DPJ powerbrokers Ichiro Ozawa and Yukio Hatoyama. But Noda defeated Kaieda in two rounds of voting. The result is unexpected but reasonable. In a situation where a strong man meets a strong man, usually the third man who is more traditional, wise but in the margin has been successful. In this instance, Noda is the third man.

In a brief speech following his victory, Noda said that he will focus on the living standard of the Japanese people and give more support to young people in politics. The former part is for public consumption as the domestic economy is sluggish and social dissatisfaction has grown following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The new government should broadcast a positive message to its people. The latter part is for the DPJ. Although there had been no news for the fierce fight in the party, the disagreements among both senior and junior party members are obvious. Some Japanese media even observed that Kan's resignation had further deepened the divisions between different groups within the DPJ. Former DPJ president Ozawa told reporters that he would observe the situation and give "conditional support" to Noda following Kaieda's failure. How reluctant this sounds, even in such an indirect language as Japanese.