THE immediate Japanese reaction to the new coalition cabinet selected by Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa was favourable without being overly enthusiastic.
Mr Hosokawa has done his best to assure the disparate coalition's longevity through a shrewd political balancing act, but one group which is almost certainly disappointed is the Japan New Party (JNP), founded and led by Mr Hosokawa himself.
Traditional factional practice in Japan requires that a prime minister from one faction is initially not too assertive in placing his supporters in top ministerial jobs. Mr Hosokawa has gone much further than this and has failed to appoint any other member of the JNP apart from himself.
While Mr Hosokawa's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) predecessors as premier for the past 38 years had to balance factions, Mr Hosokawa has had to balance seven political parties.
One technique he has used is to bring all seven leaders of the parties constituting the coalition into the Cabinet.
''Every cabinet meeting will be a coalition summit,'' as one source described it.