Ozawa to run against Kan in DPJ leadership race

TOKYO, Aug. 26 Kyodo -
Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa said Thursday he will run
against Prime Minister Naoto Kan next month in the ruling party's leadership
election, a move that could fuel tension within the party and see Japan led by
its third prime minister in a year.
''As I heard former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama say he will give me thorough
support if I run in the election, I decided to do so today in front of Mr.
Hatoyama,'' Ozawa told reporters after meeting with Hatoyama.
Hatoyama, who until Tuesday had publicly supported Kan's reelection, told
reporters separately that he will now back Ozawa in the race.
Hatoyama held talks over the Sept. 14 election with Ozawa, a former secretary
general of the party who has been critical of the way Kan has been running the
government since he took office nearly three months ago.
Ozawa has criticized the current leadership for backpedaling on the DPJ's goal
of wresting control from the country's powerful bureaucracy in designing
important policies.
Kan reacted calmly to Ozawa's decision to run in the election, saying, ''It is
very good.''
''The DPJ has held a party presidential election many times but has never been
torn up because of that,'' Kan said at a meeting with first-term lawmakers of
the party.
Kan expressed his renewed pledge to revitalize Japan, saying he will ''fight
fairly'' and promote his political vision as best he can to the public during
the campaign, which will officially start next Wednesday.
Kan told reporters in the evening he is hoping to hold talks with Hatoyama and
if necessary he will consider doing the same with Ozawa, adding he still thinks
it is important to enhance unity among DPJ lawmakers.
Kan said he will organize a news conference to formally announce his bid for
reelection after finalizing the basic principle of new measures to help the
Japanese economy recover.
Many opinion polls have shown Kan ahead of other potential DPJ leaders,
possibly because the public has become tired of seeing a rapid succession of
Japanese prime ministers while the country is facing a prolonged economic
slump.
But Kan has no rock-solid foothold in the DPJ. A total of about 70 DPJ
lawmakers belonging to a group headed either by transport minister Seiji
Maehara or Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda have so far thrown their support
behind Kan, in addition to his intraparty group of about 50 lawmakers.
Out of 412 DPJ lawmakers, about 150 are affiliated with Ozawa and 60 with
Hatoyama -- who both stepped down from the DPJ's leadership in June amid
falling public support for the ruling party, which swept to power last summer
after winning the lower house election by a landslide.
Despite Ozawa's strong influence in Japanese political circles, he is not
particularly popular with the voting public, partly because he has been
embroiled in a money scandal involving his former secretaries and is known as
an adept backroom dealer, often dubbed as ''the shadow shogun.''
Ozawa's bid to lead the DPJ comes at a time when an independent judicial panel
has called for resuming an investigation by prosecutors into whether Ozawa
should be held responsible for fund-reporting irregularities that led to the
arrest of an aide while he was DPJ president in 2009.
Besides DPJ lawmakers and local assembly members, rank-and-file supporters of
the party will be eligible to vote for the first time since 2002 in the
upcoming election.
A total of about 340,000 rank-and-file party members or supporters have a big
impact on the outcome of the election as their votes will be about equal to 35
percent of votes to be cast by the lawmakers.
Hatoyama visited Kan at the premier's office Wednesday evening, asking him to
strengthen unity among DPJ lawmakers, including those in the biggest intraparty
group headed by Ozawa. But Hatoyama said he could not receive a favorable
response from Kan.
Kan revealed to reporters Thursday night he told Hatoyama during the meeting
that an environment in which ''nothing can be decided if there is no approval
from Mr. Ozawa is not good.''
Ozawa was briefed on the meeting in the morning by Hatoyama, who had been
acting as a mediator between the two camps in an effort to avoid an
intensification of clashes within the DPJ.
''If that is the case, I would like to run if I could have cooperation from
you, my political soulmate since when the party I then headed merged with the
DPJ (in 2003),'' Hatoyama quoted Ozawa as saying during the meeting.
About 80 DPJ lawmakers who have close ties with Ozawa and share his negative
assessment of the current leadership on Wednesday formally asked Ozawa make a
bid to oust Kan as DPJ president and prime minister.
Kan's government was formed on June 8 after Hatoyama stepped down after only
around eight months in office due to a sharp fall in public support triggered
by his failure to resolve a dispute over the relocation of a U.S. military base
in Okinawa and his own political funds scandal.
Kan started his administration with strong public backing, but partly due to
his sudden remarks suggesting the possibility of a future hike in the
consumption tax the DPJ suffered a setback in the upper house election in July.
As a result, the ruling coalition led by the DPJ lost its majority in the House
of Councillors.
Ozawa has been intensifying his criticism of Kan in recent days, saying he is
losing momentum, making it difficult for him to implement many of the important
promises the DPJ made to voters ahead of its election victory in August 2009,
which some say owed largely to the powerbroker's political skills.
Before coming to power, the DPJ, which had no experience of running the
government until then, had criticized the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party
for frequently changing its leader, and thereby prime minister, without
resolving a number of pending socio-economic issues.
Since Junichiro Koizumi's rare five years in office ended in September 2006,
Japan has had already five more prime ministers.
==Kyodo