The lineup of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's new Cabinet, which emerged Friday after a minor reshuffle, underscores his hope for a smooth start to the Diet's ordinary session later this month and for progress in bringing about Japan's financial reconstruction and its participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional free trade agreement being pushed by the United States, Australia and several other countries. But his administration will face great difficulty unless he proves his trustworthiness in each step he takes.

In the reshuffle, Mr. Kan removed Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku and infrastructure and transport minister Sumio Mabuchi, since opposition parties controlling the Upper House had passed censure resolutions against them mainly over their handling of the September collision incident near the Senkaku Islands of Okinawa Prefecture involving a Chinese trawler and two Japan Coast Guard patrol ships. In sum, Mr. Kan succumbed to a threat from the opposition parties to boycott Diet deliberations as long as the two remain in the Cabinet.

Mr. Sengoku, who played a vital role in running the Kan administration, has been shifted to the post of Democratic Party of Japan acting chief. Mr. Kan plans to have him work with his new Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano to deal with the opposition forces.