Noda can be considered to be a quite conservative and right-wing politician, given his past statements such as 'Class-A war criminals commemorated at Yasukuni Shrine are not war criminals' and 'There was nothing like "Rape of Nanking"'. Noda is pragmatic enough, though, to announce that his Cabinet members will not visit Yasukuni in consideration of Japan's relationships with its Asian neighbours.

It seems that the main reason for Noda's election as DPJ President (and hence Prime Minister) was that those who voted for Maehara in the first round of the last election for DPJ's party president voted for Noda in the second round in opposition to Ozawa. The choice of Noda as Prime Minister seems to be possible due to the internal politics of the DPJ. As the public opinion on favorite next Prime Minister showed, the choice of Noda as PM is far from what many Japanese people wanted. In fact, I wonder how many Japanese people knew Noda before he became PM. He is a low-key figure compared to Hatoyama and Kan.

Although I understand that he may be an appropriate person to unite the DPJ, as can be seen from his choice of Cabinet members from different groups including Ozawa's (with the exception of Hatoyama group, from which no member was chosen), Noda has no strong leadership which is needed when Japan has so many problems in its economy and society. It is quite pathetic that Noda emphasises his political style as 'working like "dojo"'. As he paid much attention to 'tonai yuwa' when he chose Cabinet members, not necessarily based on policy expertise in their chosen areas, it is questionable that Noda can exert a strong leadership (also considering his personality). It is possible that he can be another PM who can last for only a year or so, but that is a good thing to happen.

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Dr. Hiroaki Richard Watanabe, D.Phil. Oxford Lecturer, School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield

http://www.shef.ac.uk/seas/staff/japanese/watanabe.html
http://www.wreac.org/people/WREAC-People/Core-Researchers/Watanabe%2C-Hiroaki-Richard/details