Japan PM Taro eyes Cabinet, party changes before election

The main opposition Democratic Party, though, confronted problems of its own after party leader Yukio Hatoyama admitted that some people listed as donors in funding reports were dead.

Hatoyama, who took the post in May after his predecessor quit over a funding scandal that ensnared a close aide, apologized for the misreports but told a news conference he did not plan to resign.

Polls have shown the Democrats leading Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the run-up to a parliamentary election that must be held by October, boosting the chances of an end to more than five decades of almost unbroken rule by the business-friendly ruling party.

A Democratic win would increase the likelihood of a breakthrough in a parliamentary stalemate that has foiled policy implementation as Japan struggles with its deepest recession since World War Two.

The Asahi newspaper reported that Aso, 68, was finalizing plans to change his top party line-up and some cabinet members in a day or two to improve the party's tattered image.

“I have been thinking this should be done at an appropriate time with appropriate people,” Aso told reporters.

New Finance Minister?

Speculation has focused on whether Aso would relieve Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano of one or more of the three portfolios he now holds, and the possibility he might draft a popular comedian-turned-governor for a key domestic post.

Kyodo news agency said LDP Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda, 65, a former chief cabinet secretary, and party policy chief Kosuke Hori, 75, were possible candidates for the finance post.

The Asahi newspaper said Aso might state his intention to dissolve the lower house before leaving for the July 8-10 Group of Eight summit in Italy, but wait to dissolve the chamber until after a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on July 12 that could provide clues to the party's fate nationwide.

Media said, however, that Aso faced substantial opposition to his plans inside the LDP, where moves to dump him have intensified as fears grow that the party will suffer a bashing at in an election many expect in August.

“They are in panic mode,” said Gerry Curtis, a political science professor at New York's Columbia University, noting that recent internal LDP surveys suggest the party might only win 165 seats in parliament's 480-member lower house.

The party now holds 303 seats and its junior partner has 31, giving them a two-thirds majority that allows them to enact laws rejected by the opposition-controlled upper chamber.

Senior LDP executive Takashi Sasagawa rejected calls to pick a new party leader soon. “There is no time and this would merely cause mistrust,” he told reporters.

Japan has had three premiers since Junichiro Koizumi led the LDP to a huge election victory in 2005, with Aso's two predecessors both quitting after a year in the face of the deadlocked parliament and sinking support.

The ruling party infighting comes as Japan struggles to emerge from its worst recession in 60 years, with the jobless rate hitting a 5-1/2-year high in May.

A ruling bloc loss in a closely watched election for the governorship of Shizuoka, in central Japan, on Sunday would likely boost calls for Aso to quit, but many say the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election holds the real key to his fate.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email