Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori unveiled his new Cabinet on Tuesday evening, retaining six key ministers and making a surprise decision to appoint former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto ahead of a major administrative realignment that will take place on Jan. 6.

The new Cabinet, coming just weeks after Mori's administration survived an opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion on Nov. 21, may end up being short-lived, however, under the deeply unpopular prime minister.

The new lineup reflects the delicate balance of power usually struck between the Liberal Democratic Party's clashing factions.

The appointments thus excluded those who abstained from -- rather than voted against -- the no-confidence vote that nearly toppled Mori, namely Koichi Kato and Taku Yamasaki, the leaders of the rebellion, and their followers.

Mori named Hashimoto special minister for administrative reform and chief of the Okinawa Development Agency. Beginning on Jan. 6, Hashimoto will also be in charge of policy for the Northern Territories dispute with Russia.

During his term as prime minister from January 1996 to July 1998, Hashimoto laid the foundation for the upcoming realignment of government ministries and agencies. He is remembered for the tough stance he took in 1995 during auto trade negotiations with then U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, and is currently head of the LDP's largest faction.

"It is very meaningful to have a person like former Prime Minister Hashimoto, who can oversee issues from a wide perspective (as the special minister)," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, a recent appointee who will survive the reshuffle. "It is high on the agenda of this Cabinet to promote administrative reform in substance, as well as in form."

With the retention of Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, Mori's new Cabinet becomes the first in the postwar era to have two former prime ministers. Miyazawa has been in control of the finance portfolio since July 1998, or 28 months, an unusually long period for a minister.

The five others who were reappointed are Fukuda, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, International Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma, Construction Minister Chikage Ogi and Environment Agency chief Yoriko Kawaguchi, who formerly worked for major brewery Suntory Ltd.

The reshuffle reduced the number of ministers from 18 to 17 in preparation for the realignment, which will merge 23 ministries and agencies into just 13. The realignment also means that some of the newly appointed Cabinet ministers will temporarily be in charge of more than one body at the same time.

Ogi, who also leads the New Conservative Party, was reappointed to lead a new ministry -- the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry -- which will absorb the Construction and Transport ministries and the Hokkaido Development and National Land agencies.

Toranosuke Katayama, chairman of the Upper House Diet Affairs Committee, was named chief of the posts and telecommunications and home affairs ministries, as well as head of the Management and Coordination Agency. The three will also be merged into one entity.

Chikara Sakaguchi, deputy head of New Komeito, was named head of both the Health and Welfare Ministry and the Labor Ministry, which will merge.

Sakaguchi and Ogi are the only non-LDP politicians in the new Cabinet.

Mori, meanwhile, appointed Fukushiro Nukaga as head of the Economic Planning Agency and special minister in charge of information technology.