Despite Prime Minister Naoto Kan's pledge to create the "best lineup to overcome the crisis," political pundits were skeptical that replacing Yoshito Sengoku with Yukio Edano as chief Cabinet secretary and taking on outsider Kaoru Yosano will help his team solve the ruling party's biggest problems.
Kan's priority is to persuade the opposition camp to pass the fiscal 2011 budget and related bills when the divided Diet convenes for the year's first session this month.
In reconfiguring his Cabinet Friday, Kan was forced to sack Sengoku, his right-hand man, and transport minister Sumio Mabuchi in the face of the opposition camp's condemnation of the pair's perceived missteps in handling a recent diplomatic row with China.