Japan's new leader Naoto Kan yesterday huddled with aides to choose a cabinet line up that will help him tackle pressing challenges, from reviving Asia's top economy to mending ties with Washington.

Kan replaced Yukio Hatoyama on Friday becomes Japan's fifth prime minister in four years after Hatoyama stumbled over a dispute about a US airbase and became mired in political funding scandals.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and health and welfare minister Akira Nagatsuma will be reappointed when Kan launches his cabinet on Tuesday, Kyodo News reported, quoting unnamed sources.

Kan, a one-time leftist activist, received a generally warm welcome from the press, with one major daily highlighting that he was the first prime minister in over a decade not to hail from one of Japan's political dynasties.

"Japan's politics has turned a new page," the Asahi Shimbun said in an editorial.

“Mr Kan was raised in the family of an ordinary salary man. He has a unique background, as many of the post-war prime ministers came from political families or the bureaucracy.”

Kan, 63, served as finance minister and deputy premier in Hatoyama's centre-left government, which took power last year in a groundbreaking election that ended decades of conservativerule.

Support for his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) jumped to 36.1 percent from 20.5 percent in late May, with nearly 58 percent expressing high hopes for Kan, Kyodo News said in its opinion poll released Saturday.