DPJ leadership race begins, Kan in tough battle to stay in power+

TOKYO, Sept. 1 Kyodo -
The Democratic Party of Japan's two-week leadership race began Wednesday, with
Prime Minister Naoto Kan facing a tough battle against the ruling party's
bigwig Ichiro Ozawa in his bid to stay in power.
Kan and Ozawa, the sole challenger, unveiled their policy platforms after
filing their candidacies for the Sept. 14 election in the morning at the
party's headquarters.
It is almost certain that the winner of the party's presidential election will
also be prime minister because the DPJ holds a majority in the more powerful
lower house in parliament.
Ozawa has been critical of Kan, saying he lacks strong leadership and his
approach since he took the helm of the country in June goes against many of the
pledges the party made before its lower house election victory one year ago.
Ozawa said Wednesday his envisioned government will focus strongly on
''faithfully'' implementing the pledges the DPJ made at the time of the
historic change of power last year, including increasing household income and
wresting control from Japan's powerful bureaucracy in formulating important
policies.
''We have to establish leadership by politicians. But the situation is not
exactly like that and because of this, the public's (once high) expectations
(for the DPJ) are fading,'' Ozawa said at a joint news conference with Kan in
the afternoon at a Tokyo hotel.
While Kan has indicated the need to review some of the pledges to curb the
country's huge public debt, Ozawa's policies include providing 26,000 yen in
monthly allowances for each child of junior high school age or younger in
fiscal 2012, doubling the current amount.
Kan's government is considering reviewing the party's original promise of
raising the current 13,000 yen to 26,000 yen in fiscal 2011, exploring the
possibility of providing relevant services rather than cash.
On the economic front, Ozawa also said he plans to take all necessary measures,
including market intervention, to avoid a sharp rise in the yen against other
major currencies and use 2 trillion yen in reserve funds in the current fiscal
year's budget, more than doubling that planned by Kan, to help avoid the
economy derailing from its fragile recovery.
Kan said the ongoing efforts to revitalize Japan are about to enter full gear,
and creating more jobs and dispelling anxiety about the future by improving
social welfare programs will be his government's top priority.
Kan reiterated his determination to grapple with the problems of deteriorating
public finances and increasing social security costs. He said drastic reforms
are needed in the tax system, including the consumption tax.
The premier also said he will try to realize ''clean politics'' where money
does not talks.
At the news conference, Ozawa exchanged harsh words with Kan over key policies.
He disapproved of the idea of launching debate on tax reforms before cutting
enough wasteful spending and also refuted that he has done any wrongdoing in
managing his political funds.
Ozawa's vie for presidency comes at a time when an independent judicial panel
made up of citizens is reviewing prosecutors' decisions not to indict him over
a funding scandal involving his former aides.
Among others, major differences of opinions were seen with regard to the
planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma base within Okinawa
Prefecture.
Ozawa said a new plan needs to be studied in realizing the relocation with
enough support from people in the prefecture, while Kan said he remains
committed to an accord struck between the two countries in May and that calling
for another round of negotiations from scratch is irresponsible.
One point the two said they clearly agreed on was that there is no possibility
that the DPJ would be torn apart whoever wins the election.
Ozawa's bid to oust Kan from the top post comes after last-ditch efforts
Tuesday by some senior DPJ lawmakers failed to patch up differences between the
two on how to run the country, amid concerns that the one-on-one fight could
break up the party, formed in 1998.
For the first time since 2002, rank-and-file party members and supporters will
be eligible to vote in the election, in addition to 412 DPJ lawmakers and local
assembly members belonging to the party.
Recent opinion polls have shown that Kan is ahead of Ozawa, a former DPJ
secretary general, in the race, possibly because the public has become tired of
seeing a rapid succession of Japanese prime ministers while the country is in a
prolonged economic slump, and many dislike Ozawa's murky connection to money
scandals.
But the 63-year-old prime minister does not have a rock-solid foothold in the DPJ.
Out of the 412 DPJ Diet members, about 150 are affiliated with Ozawa and around
60 with Kan's predecessor Yukio Hatoyama, who supports the 68-year-old
powerbroker and heads the second-largest intraparty group.
Hatoyama and Ozawa both stepped down from the DPJ leadership in June amid
falling public support for the party, which swept to power last September after
winning the House of Representatives election by a landslide.
Ozawa has been largely credited with the DPJ's win in the election in late
August last year.
Kan has so far been backed by about 70 DPJ lawmakers belonging to a group
headed either by transport minister Seiji Maehara or Finance Minister Yoshihiko
Noda, in addition to his own intraparty group of about 50 lawmakers.
Ozawa may garner more support from DPJ lawmakers, but a total of about 340,000
rank-and-file party members and supporters will have a big impact on the
outcome of the election because their votes will collectively be equivalent to
about 35 percent of the votes to be cast by DPJ lawmakers.
The DPJ presidential election is held once every two years. Kan is currently
serving the remainder of what began as Ozawa's two-year term.
Ozawa, who was DPJ president from April 2006, stepped down from the top party
post in May 2009, prior to the lower house election, after his state-paid aide
was arrested and indicted over shady political contributions from a
construction company.
The party's presidential elections in 2004, 2006 and 2008 were all held without
a contest.
==Kyodo
2010-09-01 23:42:41


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