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Embattled Japanese PM Kan re-elected head of Democrats
Source: Agencies |
September 15, 2010, Wednesday
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JAPANESE Prime Minister Naoto Kan was re-elected president of the ruling Democratic Party yesterday, surviving a challenge from a veteran power broker and sparing Japan another leadership change as it deals with a sluggish economy.
Kan, in office just three months, defeated party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa by an unexpectedly wide margin, 721-491. Media speculation beforehand was that the vote would be much closer.
The leadership dispute now settled, Kan and his Cabinet can turn their attention to tackling a host of problems confronting Japan, from economic malaise and a surging yen - which yesterday hit a new 15-year high against the dollar - to an escalating spat with China over detention of a Chinese fishing trawler.
But Kan, 63, still faces major obstacles in parliament, where the Democrats and their junior coalition partner lost their majority in the upper house in July elections.
"The battle is now going to turn to parliament," said Naoto Nonaka, a political science professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.
After the vote, Kan appealed to fellow party members to work together to tackle the nation's challenges.
"Japan is currently in serious difficulty. We must rebuild Japan to make a healthy Japan again in order to hand it to the next generation, and I will stake my life to do the job and gain support from the people," he said.
A political fixture for 40 years, Ozawa may have been done in by a political funding scandal hanging over his head. He quit as the party's No. 2 in June because of it, and could face indictment on allegations of funding irregularities as early as next month. Had Ozawa won, he would have been Japan's third prime minister in a year.
A fiscal disciplinarian who has campaigned for more transparent politics, Kan is far more popular among the general public than Ozawa. Surveys show that voters prefer Kan by a margin of four to one.
The vote results showed that rank-and-file party members also overwhelmingly preferred Kan.
Shinichi Nishikawa, political science professor at Meiji University, said that indicated they rejected a move back toward the old, scandal-tainted politics associated with Ozawa and the long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party that the Democrats overthrew in landslide elections a year ago.
In office for just three months, Kan has not been able to achieve a great deal.
His most noted policy proposal - that Japan needed to seriously consider raising its sales tax - was a disaster, suggested just before July's upper house elections. He was widely blamed for the Democrats' heavy losses in that vote.
Kan, in office just three months, defeated party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa by an unexpectedly wide margin, 721-491. Media speculation beforehand was that the vote would be much closer.
The leadership dispute now settled, Kan and his Cabinet can turn their attention to tackling a host of problems confronting Japan, from economic malaise and a surging yen - which yesterday hit a new 15-year high against the dollar - to an escalating spat with China over detention of a Chinese fishing trawler.
But Kan, 63, still faces major obstacles in parliament, where the Democrats and their junior coalition partner lost their majority in the upper house in July elections.
"The battle is now going to turn to parliament," said Naoto Nonaka, a political science professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.
After the vote, Kan appealed to fellow party members to work together to tackle the nation's challenges.
"Japan is currently in serious difficulty. We must rebuild Japan to make a healthy Japan again in order to hand it to the next generation, and I will stake my life to do the job and gain support from the people," he said.
A political fixture for 40 years, Ozawa may have been done in by a political funding scandal hanging over his head. He quit as the party's No. 2 in June because of it, and could face indictment on allegations of funding irregularities as early as next month. Had Ozawa won, he would have been Japan's third prime minister in a year.
A fiscal disciplinarian who has campaigned for more transparent politics, Kan is far more popular among the general public than Ozawa. Surveys show that voters prefer Kan by a margin of four to one.
The vote results showed that rank-and-file party members also overwhelmingly preferred Kan.
Shinichi Nishikawa, political science professor at Meiji University, said that indicated they rejected a move back toward the old, scandal-tainted politics associated with Ozawa and the long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party that the Democrats overthrew in landslide elections a year ago.
In office for just three months, Kan has not been able to achieve a great deal.
His most noted policy proposal - that Japan needed to seriously consider raising its sales tax - was a disaster, suggested just before July's upper house elections. He was widely blamed for the Democrats' heavy losses in that vote.
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