Tokyo, September 16: Japan’s next prime minister Yukio Hatoyama will appoint 71-year-old veteran lawmaker Toshimi Kitazawa as defence minister, the business daily Nikkei said on Wednesday.
Kitazawa, who has served as the head of the upper house committee on foreign affairs and defence, has advocated the withdrawal of the Japanese military from Iraq.
Hatoyama will take office as prime minister and is expected to announce his cabinet lineup on Wednesday after a huge election win on Aug. 30 that brings to power a government pledged to putting more money in the hands of consumers, cutting waste and reducing bureaucrats’ control over policy-making.
—Agencies