Fresh off his re-election as president of the Democratic Party of Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kan reshuffled his 3-month-old Cabinet on Friday, replacing 10 of the 17 Cabinet posts and naming few people loyal to party bigwig Ichiro Ozawa.
Before Tuesday's DPJ presidential race in which Ozawa, a former party secretary general, lost to Kan, the two had agreed to foster party unity regardless of the outcome, but many of the key roles in the government and the DPJ executive lineup went to people known to be critical of Ozawa.
Highlights of the lineup are the move for Seiji Maehara from transport minister to foreign minister and the naming of non-Diet member Yoshihiro Katayama, former Tottori governor and currently a Keio University professor, as internal affairs minister.