Yosano, Hiranuma confirm plans to launch new party this week+

TOKYO, April 5 Kyodo -
Former Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano, who is set to leave the main opposition
Liberal Democratic Party after severely criticizing the party leadership, and
former trade minister Takeo Hiranuma confirmed Monday evening their plans to
launch a new party by the end of this week.
The party is likely to be launched on Saturday, rather than on Thursday as
previously planned, sources close to the two lawmakers said.
Hiranuma, an independent who left the LDP in 2005, said the two and other
like-minded lawmakers also agreed to work on both economic stimulus measures
and restoring the nation's fiscal health as ''two wheels of a car'' with a tax
increase in mind.
Hiranuma made the remarks to reporters after meeting at a Tokyo restaurant with
Yosano, former LDP Acting Secretary General Hiroyuki Sonoda, who tendered a
letter of resignation to the party in the afternoon, and former transport
minister Takao Fujii, a House of Councillors member contemplating leaving the
LDP.
The focus now is on who would be the fifth member of the party, which will be
headed by Hiranuma, as it would need five parliamentarians to qualify as a
political party eligible to receive state subsidies and other benefits.
Hiranuma disclosed in the evening that he is in talks with Yoshio Nakagawa, an
upper house member of the LDP, over his possible participation in the new
party.
The LDP, still smarting from its historic defeat in last summer's general
election and subsequent fall from power after more than half a century of
almost continuous rule, is struggling to reassert itself under Sadakazu
Tanigaki ahead of the upper house election expected in July.
Yosano, Hiranuma and the others are partly motivated by their desire to stop
the ruling Democratic Party of Japan winning a majority by itself in the
chamber in the election, and believe the LDP, with its low support rate, is
unable to offer an alternative to voters dissatisfied with the DPJ.
Sources close to him have said upper house member Yoshitada Konoike has told
LDP executives he intends to leave the party soon to join the new party.
But Hiranuma said Monday evening, ''While (Konoike) may join the party in the
future, he will not do so at the founding'' of the party.
On the disagreement over economic and fiscal policy that is believed to exist
between Yosano and Hiranuma, Hiranuma said the new party will work on both with
a tax hike in mind, but that concrete policies would be worked out after
further coordination, Hiranuma said.
Yosano is a strong advocate of restoring the nation's fiscal health. As LDP
policy chief, he also pushed the privatization of postal services, which
Hiranuma opposed and eventually left the LDP over. Hiranuma has advocated
stipulating a new Constitution.
The participants also agreed that the new party may support LDP candidates in
the upper house election if they are ''good,'' Hiranuma said.
Shintaro Ishihara, a former LDP lawmaker now serving his third term as Tokyo
governor, also joined Monday's meeting. He backs the lawmakers' move to create
a new party.
Hiranuma is expected to meet Tuesday with former internal affairs minister
Kunio Hatoyama, the younger brother of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama who quit
the LDP last month, over their possible partnership.
But Hiranuma told reporters Monday he does not think Hatoyama will become a
founding member of the new party.
In Miyazaki Prefecture, Nariaki Nakayama, a former transport minister who was
expelled from the LDP's Miyazaki chapter last September after running as an
independent in last summer's House of Representatives election, said he would
run in the upper house election for the new party.
Meanwhile, Konoike told LDP executives last week that he intends to join the
new party, the sources close to him said Monday. But concerned that his
departure could trigger further defections from the LDP, the executives are
trying to keep Konoike in the party, the sources said.
Regarded as a member of the LDP's conservative wing, the 69-year-old Konoike
has for some time been exploring the possibility of forming a partnership with
Hiranuma, who advocates the consolidation of conservative forces.
But Konoike has recently begun wavering over joining the new party from the
start on the grounds that the group's policy orientation may be diluted by
Yosano, whose priority is restoring the nation's fiscal health, a source close
to him said.
Konoike was appointed deputy chief Cabinet secretary in the last LDP-led
government headed by Prime Minister Taro Aso, but left the post last year
following a weekly magazine report that he was having an extramarital affair.
==Kyodo