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Japan prime minister faces no-confidence motion
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-11 15:45 TOKYO -- Japan's unpopular prime minister faced an embarrassing and possibly unprecedented no-confidence vote in parliament Wednesday, but the measure was unlikely to force him to call general elections as demanded by the opposition.
Opposition groups led by the Democratic Party of Japan submitted the measure to the upper house, where they hold a majority, for a vote later in the day. The bill was expected to pass that chamber, which would be the first time a no-confidence motion has won approval in a house of parliament in postwar Japan. The bill, however, was expected to die in the ruling party-controlled-lower house. The motion was the latest in a series of steps by the opposition to use its clout in the upper house -- won in elections last summer -- to harass Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's government and force him to call lower house elections. Yukio Hatoyama, the DPJ's secretary general, said Fukuda -- whose support ratings have fallen to 20 percent according to polls -- was ruling without the consent of the voters. The last election for the lower house was in 2005 under the vastly more popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "There's a question as to whether the Fukuda Cabinet has served the people, it's time for them to quit," he told reporters. The government dismissed the measure as posturing by the opposition. "I don't think it has any real meaning beyond being a sort of political performance," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. The opposition has consistently attempted to block high-profile legislation in the upper house, forcing Fukuda's ruling coalition to pass bills with a two-thirds majority vote in the more powerful lower house. While the tactic has embarrassed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, it hasn't won much support for the opposition, which Fukuda has accused of lacking the ability or program to govern effectively. Last year, the split in parliament forced Japan to withdraw its ships from the Indian Ocean, where they were supporting US-led troops in Afghanistan. The US is Japan's top ally, and Tokyo later managed to pass a scaled-down version of the mission. The opposition also blocked two of Fukuda's nominees to head the central bank in March, leaving Japan's economy without one of its key leaders at a time of global financial uncertainty. In the current impasse, opposition leaders are objecting specifically to Fukuda's handling of a health insurance plan for the elderly and scandals in the Defense Ministry. The opposition parties plan to boycott the parliament after the no-confidence vote is taken, news reports said. |
