Fukuda wins confidence vote

In a stark reflection of Japan's political stalemate, parliament's lower house yesterday approved a motion of confidence in Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, a day after the upper chamber adopted an unprecedented, but non-binding, censure of the unpopular leader.

The opposition Democratic Party and smaller allies pushed through the upper house censure motion on Wednesday, the first against a prime minister under the current 1947 constitution, in an effort to build momentum for an early lower house election.

But Fukuda has said he had no plan to call a poll for the powerful lower chamber within the year. And while his weekly email magazine made no direct mention of the censure, the opening greeting yesterday was "Never give up".