
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 23, 1994                   TAG: 9404250163
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8 NATL/INTL   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

JAPANESE PARTIES PICK NEW LEADER

Japan's ruling coalition announced Friday its decision to back Tsutomu Hata as Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa's successor.

Putting aside two weeks of bickering, the coalition's seven blocs agreed Friday to throw their votes behind Hata when Parliament chooses a new prime minister Monday. Hata now is foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

Because the coalition controls a narrow majority of seats in Parliament's lower house, its support will assure Hata of the post. He is expected to form a new Cabinet soon afterward.

Hata, who is also head of the coalition's second-largest party and has been a member of Parliament since 1969, was characteristically humble.

``I am a truly inexperienced person, and I tell you frankly that I have hesitated about taking a whole country on my shoulders,'' he said. ``I accept this nomination with trepidation.''

by CNB