Japan PM woes mount over party kingpin, US base row

Author: 
 LINDA SIEG & YOKO NISHIKAWA | REUTERS
Publication Date: 
Tue, 2010-04-27 19:06

Hatoyama's ratings have already nosedived, eroded by the premier's perceived mishandling of a feud over a US Marine base in southern Japan as well as funding scandals, dimming the chances of a decisive Democratic Party victory in an upper house election expected in July.
The Democrats, who took power just seven months ago, need to win an outright majority in the upper chamber to avoid policy stalemate as the country strives to keep a fragile economic recovery on track and rein in a massive public debt.
Hatoyama, 63, is also struggling to resolve a dispute over relocating the US Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa by a self-imposed deadline of the end of May, and some even in his own party say he may have to resign if he fails to meet the deadline.
Political uncertainty is making some investors in Japanese stocks who might otherwise be buying a little wary. "Investors are likely to be mindful of this as a risk factor," said Nagayuki Yamagishi, a strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
"This will take a long time to sort out, and things will be very unclear. This will hurt the image of the party."
As Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) secretary-general, Ozawa, 67, is the party's main campaign strategist and is seen by many as the real power behind Hatoyama's government.
But his image as an old-style fixer has become a liability among voters, while his periodic meddling in policymaking has added to voters' perception of confused decision-making.
Ozawa told reporters he would stay on in his party post.
"Prosecutors did not charge me because I did not take any illegal money," Ozawa told reporters. "My conscience is clear. I will calmly keep doing the job I have been given." The ruling by the judicial review panel, made up of ordinary citizens chosen by lottery, does not force an immediate indictment, but means Ozawa could be charged in several months.
Ozawa has denied any intentional wrongdoing in a case over which his aides have been charged and prosecutors had decided in February not to indict him, saying they had insufficient evidence.
Many Democrats, though, would probably like to see him quit.
"This is a very serious outcome," Yukio Ubukata, a DPJ vice secretary-general and staunch Ozawa critic, told reporters.
"Given that the public has decided that he should be charged, the first step should be for him to resign as secretary-general." But Ozawa's considerable clout and fears he might split the party could make it hard to force him out, at least for now.
"It is possible they will dump Ozawa and keep Hatoyama," said professor Yasunori Sone at Tokyo's Keio University, noting that a panel ruling published on Monday had said prosecutors were right not to have charged the premier over a separate funding scandal.
"But it's difficult unless someone can persuade Ozawa himself to step down." Ozawa stepped down as Democratic Party leader ahead of last year's election over a separate funding scandal, and his backing helped Hatoyama take over the top post.
A former heavyweight in the business-friendly Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he was widely credited with engineering the DPJ's landslide victory in last year's lower house election.
That election ended more than 50 years of almost unbroken LDP rule and brought to power a party pledging to pay more heed to the interests of consumers and workers than companies.
Hatoyama himself is in the hotseat over his pledge to resolve by the end of May the dispute over the Futenma airbase on Okinawa, reluctant host to about half the nearly 50,000 US military forces in Japan.
Speaking hours before the arrival of a top US diplomat, the premier said on Tuesday he was finalising a plan to resolve the row, which has ruffled ties with close ally Washington.
Under a 2006 agreement, Futenma's facilities were to be shifted from a city center to a less heavily populated part of Okinawa, but Hatoyama raised hopes before his election victory last year that the airbase could be moved off the island.
The government has not revealed details of its proposal, but domestic media say it is a modified version of the 2006 plan, with some training facilities to be moved elsewhere in Japan.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, due to arrive in Tokyo later in the day, said on Monday he was encouraged by recent dialogue, but a lot of hard work lay ahead.
Resistance to the airbase has grown steadily in Okinawa, where many resent bearing what they consider an unfair burden for maintaining the 50-year-old US-Japan security alliance and dislike the crime, accidents and noise associated with the bases.
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Okinawa on Sunday to demand the base be moved off the island, while more than half the residents of another small island recently protested the idea of shifting any of the facility there.

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