HATOYAMA BECOMES PM IN HISTORIC POWER SHIFT

       Japan's new centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama acclaimed a turning point in history yesterday as he took command of Asia' s biggest economy with a pledge to return power to the people.
       The 62-year-old scion of a political dynasty was installed by parliament a fortnight after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended more than half a century of conservative dominance in a stunning election landslide.
       After naming his cabinet ministers, whose top priority is recovery from Japan's worst post-war economic recession, Hatoyama side he also wanted to redress the nation's long subservience to US foreign policy.
       "Immediately after I was appointed prime minister, I felt a tremor of excitement at a change in Japanese history, and on the other hand I felt a grave responsibility," he said at his frist prime ministerial press conference.
       "We will probably face some trial and error, but I want to ask people to stay with us, patiently," he said.
       Reaffirming his campaign promise to build a gentler, more "fraternal" society, Hatoyama said: "We have to shift the country toward that end, I will lead the way."
       Japan's usually risk-averse voters, tired with a stagnant political system and years of economic malaise, took a chance on the untested DPJ when they threw out the Liberal Democratic Party.
       But while the party itself is unfamiliar with political power, Hatoyama's cabinet lieutenants encompass years of experience.
       Hirohisa Fujii, a 77-year-old former finance ministry bureaucrat who has attacked wasteful public spending, was appointed finance minister, a post that he briefly held in the early 1990s.
       Katsuya Okada, 56, a former DPJ leader known as "Mr Clean" for his strait-laced image, was named foreign minister tasked with overhauling Japan's relations with the United States and Asia.
       Naoto Kan, a DPJ co-founder, was appointed deputy prime minister and head of the newly-formed National Strategy Bureau, which will have the crucial remit of wresting control over policy and budgets from the powerful state bureaucracy.
       "It will be the start of a new era," said Hidekazu Kawai, political science professor emeritus of Gakushuin University.
       "But that is not to say the public is euphoric. Voters are very cool and keenly watching whether the DPJ can pull off their agenda. The people are dissatisfied with the LDP. They are also anxious about the DPJ."