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TOKYO: Japan's new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was ceremonially sworn into office Wednesday as he headed toward a showdown with the resurgent opposition amid growing calls for snap elections.
A day after he was installed by parliament, Fukuda and his cabinet went to the sprawling imperial palace in central Tokyo where they were formally invested by Emperor Akihito.
"I feel good, good. I had a good night's sleep," Fukuda, clad in formal black tailed coat, told reporters as he left home for the palace ceremony.
Fukuda, a 71-year-old moderate veteran of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, succeeded conservative Shinzo Abe, who abruptly announced his resignation on September 12 amid dwindling public approval.
As he took over as prime minister, Fukuda admitted he was under intense pressure to perform.
Fukuda kept 13 of the 19 ministers in Abe's last cabinet in place, opting for security to tide over tough times ahead.
"I would call this a cabinet that has its back to the wall," Fukuda told a news conference Tuesday evening. "If we do a single thing wrong, the Liberal Democratic Party may lose its control of the government."
The opposition ended a half-century of LDP control of the upper house of parliament in July elections after Abe's government was embroiled in incessant scandals.
Main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa led his Democratic Party to the victory by accusing the staunchly conservative Abe of neglecting bread-and-butter issues, winning over rural voters resentful of free-market reforms.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange was nearly unchanged in morning trade as dealers waited to see the fiscal policies of Fukuda, who has pledged to ease the pain of the reforms in the world's second largest economy.
The opposition is now seeking snap elections for the more powerful lower house of parliament and has vowed to scuttle Fukuda's agenda.
The new premier's first task is to extend a military mission supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan, which the opposition has promised to block despite calls from the United States and other Western allies to continue it.
Fukuda, who admits he has a dry personality, is known as a behind-the-scenes operator adept at managing crises and is considered a dove in foreign policy who wants to improve ties with Japan's neighbours.
Japanese media argued that a snap election would give a mandate to Fukuda, whose elevation through backroom politicking has raised criticism of a return to the old LDP.
The liberal Asahi Shimbun proposed dissolving the lower house for general elections in January after the government compiled a draft budget for next fiscal year from April 2008.
The Mainichi Shimbun said a divided parliament was like having two prime ministers.
"The decisive battle should be fought early in order to get rid of the disadvantages of having 'two governments in one country'," it said.
Fukuda had been challenged for the premiership by conservative Taro Aso, a flamboyant former foreign minister who won more than one-third of the vote -- seen as a sizable challenge considering Aso comes from a small LDP faction.
Aso declined to take part in the new cabinet.
"Have we seen a new government that is this lacklustre?" Jiji Press head news commentator Shiro Tazaki wrote, pointing to the cabinet's old faces.
Noting that voters had grown used to theatrical politics under popular former premier Junichiro Koizumi, Tazaki wrote: "Can Mr Fukuda's approach satisfy people who have tasted a stronger pill?" - AFP/ac
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