JAPAN'S new prime minister admits he is no Mr Charisma¹ - Yoshihiko Noda likens himself to a marine² bottom-feeder rather than a glittering goldfish. But that, he says, is his appeal.

新一届日本首相野田佳彦坦言自己并非魅力先生——他将自己比作水底的泥鳅而不是闪闪发光的金鱼。但是他说，这正是他魅力所在。

JAPAN'S new prime minister admits he is no Mr Charisma - Yoshihiko Noda likens himself to a marine bottom-feeder rather than a glittering goldfish. But that, he says, is his appeal.
The 54-year-old, who as finance minister kept to plodding³（单调乏味的） statements so as not to spook financial markets, stresses his credentials⁴ as a responsible, moderate and middle-of-the road leader at a time of national crisis.

When he announced his candidacy in an essay in a conservative magazine this month, Mr Noda said: "I am an ordinary man. I do not have large financial resources... I am not stylish⁵ and my looks are not my selling point."

On Monday, making his final pitch for the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, he used the fish metaphor⁶, humbly⁷ telling his fellow DPJ MPs: "I am a loach（泥鳅） . I can't be a goldfish."

The son of a paratrooper（伞兵） in the Self-Defence Forces, Noda, a married father of two, holds broadly conservative political views.

This month, on the anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender, he angered neighbour South Korea when he said that Japanese Class-A war criminals convicted by an Allied⁸ tribunal were in fact not war criminals.

Noda is a graduate of the prestigious⁹ Waseda University's School of Political Science and Economics.

He then joined the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, set up by Panasonic founder¹⁰ and business guru（领袖，专家） Konosuke Matsushita.

The elite¹¹ leadership course trains its students in management skills and world affairs, but also in ancient arts such as the Japanese tea ceremony, kendo stick fighting and Zen meditation¹².

Mr Noda is the first Matsushita alumnus to lead Japan.

He was first elected at age 29 to the legislature of Chiba outside Tokyo and entered national politics in his mid-30s with the short-lived Japan New Party of Morihiro Hosokawa, who later became prime minister.