Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Wednesday pledged to reform the country's social security and tax system and vowed a "rebirth" for the area around a crippled nuclear facility in Fukushima prefecture.

Speaking at a traditional new year's press conference, Noda said that his government will soon submit to parliament a final draft of his Democratic Party of Japan's (DPJ) plans for consumption tax and social reforms and will seek the cooperation of the opposition bloc at some stage early next week.

"I'll never give up on achieving the policy goal of a consumption tax hike to repair Japan's tattered social security system," Noda said, adding he believed the situation will change if he firmly explains something that is in a good cause.

Noda's plans, which have divided his own party and drawn fierce resistance from opposition parties including his main Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) opponents, call for Japan's sales tax to be doubled from its current 5 percent to 10 percent by 2015, with an interim hike of 8 percent in 2014.

However, the Japanese prime minister believes the reforms are essential in aiding Japan with its battle to rein in its ballooning public debt which is twice the size of its 5 trillion yen economy and the worst in the industrialized world.

The nation's dire fiscal circumstances are set to worsen under the ever-increasing strain of burgeoning social welfare costs as the nation's population shrinks and rapidly ages.

The yen's recent strength and the euro's plummet have also adversely affected Japan's mainstay export sectors, while the costs of rebuilding the nation following the massive earthquake that struck on March 11 and those associated with the ensuing and ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture have sent the nation's balance sheet further into the red.

"We have reached a point where it is even difficult to sustain our current level of social security system," the Japanese prime minister said in his new year's address.

Noda said he will seek the support of the opposition bloc, who control Japan's upper house in the nation's bicameral system of parliament, to pass his key reform and related bills by the end of fiscal year, which ends in March.

But the prime minister, who has seen his support rating tumble to 36 percent in a recent poll by the Nikkei business daily, falling 30 points since he took office in September, is now facing a very hostile opposition -- both public and political.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, head of the LDP, snubbed Noda's hopes of unanimity with his party and its smaller allies and said Noda's signature reforms are a question of public, not parliamentary approval.

Tanigaki told local reporters following Noda's address that the DPJ leader should dissolve the lower house of parliament and call a snap election.

"The DPJ has no right to propose raising the sales tax rate and Prime Minister Noda cannot do it unless he goes to the people," Tanigaki was quoted by local media as saying in Ise city, Mie Prefecture.

Of those polled by the Nikkei, 53 percent of the public said they opposed the sales tax increase.

The LDP chief added that Noda's planned consumption tax hike is also at odds with the DPJ's own policy manifesto well-publicized when the DPJ wrestled power from the LDP in 2009.

"Noda's proposal to increase the consumption tax rate is in violation of the DPJ's policy pledges during the 2009 general election," Tanigaki said.

In a bid to restore public and political faith in his party, Noda pledged during his speech to reduce the number of seats in the Diet and said that salaries for public servant would also be reduced.

Furthermore, he indicated that a Cabinet reshuffle was on the cards to replace disgraced Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa over a spat of gaffes made about U.S. Marines being in Okinawa Prefecture and remove consumer affairs minister Kenji Yamaoka from his current post.

Both were slapped with censure motions by Japan's upper house of parliament last month, but the move will drive a further wedge through an already splintered DPJ as Ichikawa and Yamaoka's appointment's were originally made to show party unity as both ministers belong to a powerful intraparty group headed by former DPJ President and kingmaker Ichiro Ozawa.

"I want all ministers to work as one,'' the Japanese prime minister said, declining to elaborate on the situation regarding the two censured ministers who, if not sacked as the opposition bloc has requested, could delay upcoming Diet deliberations.

From within his own fractious party Noda is also facing opposition, most visibly in the nine junior lawmakers who last week submitted requests to leave the party over the issue of tax.

On Wednesday the nine ex-DPJ members Wednesday filed to launch a new party called Kizuna. The new party is in staunch opposition to Noda's sales tax hikes, as well as his plans to join the U.S.- led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

"It's regrettable, but we, the DPJ, will work in concert down the road to grapple with the challenges Japan is encountering," Noda said of the issue.

The prime minister in his speech also said that he and his government remained committed to speeding up the decontamination process in Fukushima Prefecture and said that he would ensure that ongoing post-quake construction work continued to be brisk and efficient.

Noda also vowed the government would provide compensation and necessary health checks and care for all those affected by the nuclear disaster.

"These three pillars will bring the rebirth of Fukushima," Noda said.

However, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said recently that some 2,400 square km of land around the crisis-hit nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture still needs to be decontaminated and prefectural officials are currently at odds with the central government over plans to build an interim storage facility in the prefecture to store radioactive waste.

Meanwhile, the decommissioning of the stricken plant is expected to take up to 40 years to fully complete.

The prime minister said that a state known as "cold shutdown" had been achieved at the plant and that transparent information from the government, its nuclear agencies and the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. going forward would be essential for Japan and the global community.

"The problem of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima is not only a concern for the residents of Fukushima but to all nations and people around the world. It is fundamental that we provide clear an correct information to the public," the prime minister said in his address.

Noda said he planned to visit Fukushima Prefecture on Sunday to hear first-hand accounts from citizens directly affected from the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Regarding the thorny issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture, Noda said today that the bilateral agreement made with the U.S. to relocate the base within Japan's southernmost prefecture remained the same, despite the U.S. side slashing key funding for plans involving a broader realignment of U.S. forces in Japan and mounting opposition from prefectural officials and citizens in Okinawa.