Hatoyama wants Ozawa to lead upper house election campaign+

TOKYO, Feb. 2 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama reiterated Tuesday that he hopes Ichiro Ozawa,
secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, will continue to
lead the party's campaign for the House of Councillors election this summer
even though Ozawa is embroiled in a funding scandal.

But the prime minister declined to say whether Ozawa should resign from his
post if he is criminally charged in connection with the scandal, telling
reporters in the evening, ''I don't need to comment on a hypothetical
question.''
The comments came a day after Ozawa told a news conference that he had been
questioned by prosecutors for a second time on Sunday over allegations that his
fund management body used hundreds of millions of yen in off-the-books money to
buy a plot of land in Tokyo.
While denying that he received any illicit funds, Ozawa indicated that he would
resign from the party's No. 2 post if he were charged, saying, ''Should I be
criminally charged, my responsibility would be heavy.''
On Tuesday evening, Hatoyama told reporters, ''What I can say at this point is
that I will have Secretary General Ozawa preside over the House of Councillors
election,'' adding, ''That is a natural thing to do for a secretary general.''
Ozawa, who is credited with leading the DPJ to victory in last year's House of
Representatives election, has been put in charge of the upper house election
this summer to ensure that the party secures a majority in the chamber.
Hatoyama separately told a plenary session of the Diet that he has no intention
of influencing the prosecutors' probe and has not influenced it, saying, ''I'm
aware of my position as head of the executive branch.''
Meanwhile, Jiro Kawasaki, the Diet affairs chief of the main opposition Liberal
Democratic Party, said the same day that his party would submit a Diet
resolution recommending that Ozawa resign as a lawmaker if he is criminally
charged over the scandal.
''It will probably go in that direction,'' Kawasaki said at a news conference.
Earlier in the day, Yasumasa Shigeno, secretary general of the Social
Democratic Party, one of the DPJ's two coalition partners, indicated that Ozawa
may be forced to stand down depending on the course of the prosecutors' probe.
''It is an extremely serious issue for a politician. It could threaten his
political career,'' Shigeno told reporters.
In a related development, the LDP and the opposition New Komeito party on
Tuesday confirmed plans during a meeting of their Diet affairs chiefs to
jointly submit a resolution to the Diet recommending that Tomohiro Ishikawa, a
DPJ member of the House of Representatives, resign as a lawmaker if he is
indicted over the case.
Ishikawa is among three former and current aides of Ozawa who were arrested
last month in connection with the alleged accounting irregularities at Ozawa's
fund management body. Prosecutors are poised to indict Ishikawa on Thursday,
sources close to the case said.
Ozawa resigned from the post of DPJ president in May 2009 amid another funding
scandal involving Nishimatsu Construction Co. and was succeeded by Hatoyama.
==Kyodo
2010-02-02 22:57:13


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