Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, in his first news conference since being elected, said Friday he will focus on key domestic issues of political and tax reform that cost his ruling party a crushing defeat in elections last month.
Kaifu, elected prime minister on Wednesday, spoke mostly on measures to handle voter disgust with a controversial sales tax and the Recruit stock-for-favors scandal that crippled his ruling Liberal Democratic Party."My basic stance is dialogue and reform," said the 58-year-old former education minister, portrayed by his colleagues as the man to rejuvenate the LDP.
Kaifu, as yet little known to Japanese voters, stopped short of announcing any diplomatic initiative except to say that he would like to visit Washington soon to meet President Bush.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Tokuo Yamashita has said Kaifu's trip to the United States may take place in early September.
The prime minister spent all but five minutes of his 90-minute news conference on domestic issues.
Asked whether his government will be short-lived, like the two-month administration of his predecessor Sosuke Uno, Kaifu said: "It is not the question of whether mine will be a temporary or full-fledged government. It is with how much energy I will be able to pull together the reforms.
"I am not thinking of (my own) future."
Kaifu brushed aside allegations that he was a puppet of former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, whose backing was instrumental in his elevation from being a junior member of a tiny LDP faction.