With a little more than a week to go before Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama is elected prime minister, media attention is focused on whether the DPJ will be able to create a unified policymaking system while building a stable relationship with two smaller allies.
As Hatoyama began naming senior DPJ members to key Cabinet posts, it has been reported he will ask the leaders of the DPJ's two likely partners, the Social Democratic Party and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) to join the Cabinet, a move intended to help the envisioned coalition function more smoothly.
"With representatives of each party entering the Cabinet, policymaking will be coordinated within the government," DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada said Sunday. Okada is likely to be the foreign minister.