New Japan PM: Saving economic crisis top mission

Wednesday - 12/26/2012, 11:48am EST


TOKYO (AP) - Shinzo Abe took office as Japan's seventh prime minister in six years Wednesday and vowed to overcome the deep-rooted economic and diplomatic crises facing his country.


"A strong economy is the source of energy for Japan. Without regaining a strong economy, there is no future for Japan," Abe told his first news conference after becoming prime minister for the second time.

Calling his administration a "crisis breakthrough Cabinet," Abe promised to launch bold economic measures to pull Japan out of deflation. He also vowed to step up an alliance with the United States to stabilize Japan's diplomacy shaken by increasing territorial threats from its neighbors.






"We must recover a Japan where hardworking people can feel that there is a better tomorrow," he said.


Finance Minister Taro Aso, another former prime minister who is one of Aso's most-trusted senior lawmaker, said fighting deflation would be a challenge: "We've never dealt with deflation since the end of the war. In fact, nobody in the world has."

Besides generous promises to boost public works spending _ by as much as 10 trillion yen ($119 billion), according to party officials _ Abe is pressuring the central bank to work more closely with the government to reach the inflation target.



"Japan's national security faces a clear and present danger," Abe said, referring to intensifying territorial disputes around the Japanese seas, and renewed his campaign promise to protect the safety of the people of Japan and its territory.

"Japan must strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance, the cornerstone of Japan's diplomacy," Abe said. That will be key to re-stabilizing Japan's regional diplomatic relations, he added.


The new foreign minister is Fumio Kishida, an expert on the southern island of Okinawa, where many residents upset over crime and overcrowding want a big reduction in the number of U.S. troops they host _ now at about 20,000. The new defense minister is Itsunori Onodera, who was in Abe's previous administration.



AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
