TOKYO: The race to pick Japan’s sixth leader in five years was wide open on Friday after a scandal-tainted party powerbroker looked likely to refuse to back the most popular candidate just days before a vote.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who came under fire for his response to the massive March tsunami and the radiation crisis it triggered, confirmed his intention to step down at a gathering of ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers, clearing the way for the party to pick a new leader on Monday.
”In a severe environment, I did what I should have done,” Kan told party MPs after resigning as party head. He added he would work to achieve his vision of a society that does not rely on nuclear power.
His successor faces huge challenges, including a strong yen seen as a threat to the export-reliant economy, rebuilding from the devastation of the March disasters, ending the radiation crisis at a crippled nuclear plant, forging a new energy policy, and curbing huge public debt while funding the bulging social welfare costs of an ageing society.
Rating agency Moody’s this week downgraded Japan’s sovereign debt a notch, citing its revolving-door leadership as an obstacle to effective economic policies.
Japanese media said powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa was unlikely to back former foreign minister Seiji Maehara, a security hawk who ranks high with ordinary voters.
Rifts over the role of Ozawa, a political mastermind with an image as an old-style wheeler-dealer, have plagued the DPJ since it swept to power in 2009 pledging change.
Whether and when to raise taxes to curb a public debt already twice the size of Japan’s 5 trillion dollar economy is a focus of debate in the leadership race, but any decision by Ozawa on who to back is seen as likely to be decided more by his hopes of boosting his clout than by policy positions. It was unclear if Ozawa, who heads the DPJ’s biggest group despite suspension of his party membership over a funding scandal, would back an existing candidate such as trade minister Banri Kaieda or seek a new contender to support. (PTI)