The race to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shaped up on Friday as a fight between 71-year-old lawmaker Yasuo Fukuda, an advocate of warm ties with Asian neighbors, and hawkish former foreign minister Taro Aso.

Fukuda emerged as the frontrunner after several ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) factions threw their support behind him, but the outspoken Aso vowed to fight to the end.

Japanese media said Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, was backing Fukuda while a Kyodo news agency poll said voters favored Fukuda 28.1 percent to 18.7 percent for Aso.

Many analysts said the outcome of the LDP leadership race appeared a done deal, but some warned uncertainty remained ahead of the September 23 poll of party lawmakers and local chapters.

"I think the LDP is basically panicking and trying to find someone acceptable to everyone," said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor at Tokyo's Sophia University, referring to the sudden swell of support for Fukuda, who had declined to run against Abe last year, citing his age.

"But there is a world outside the LDP," Nakano said.

Abe's year in power was marred by scandals involving cabinet members and a humiliating election defeat in July that cost his ruling coalition its majority in parliament's upper house.

But his shock decision to step down stirred worries of delay in decisions on vital policies such as tax and fiscal reform.

In keeping with his traditional style, Fukuda, the son of a prime minister, sounded diffident as he declared his candidacy for president of the LDP, and hence premier, to his supporters.

"I never even dreamed I would find myself in such a position. It's something I hadn't considered at all," Fukuda said.

By late afternoon, he was sounding a bolder note.

"We need to tackle many problems, so I will work toward solving them with courage and strength," he told reporters.

Aso, who unlike Fukuda shares Abe's conservative agenda aimed at reviving traditional values and patriotism, quickly attacked the apparent backroom deals among party faction leaders.

"Is it really OK for the play to be over before the curtain even goes up?" he said at a news conference.

The victor of the LDP leadership race is assured of the premiership by virtue of the ruling camp's grip on parliament's lower house, which picks the prime minister.

Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, 63, had been the first to say he would run in the party poll, but on Friday he withdrew and backed Fukuda, a former chief cabinet secretary.

Enabling legislation for the mission expires on November 1 and opposition parties are against extending it.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/15/2007 page7)