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Okada bids to head Japan's main opposition party
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-13 15:52

TOKYO - A former head of Japan's main opposition Democratic Party, Katsuya Okada, said on Wednesday he would run for the party leadership after its chief quit this week in an effort to restore its prospects in a looming election.

Okada bids to head Japan's main opposition party
The vice president of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Katsuya Okada. Nicknamed "Mr. Clean" for his battle against corruption in Japan's scandal-hit politics, Okada is widely seen by the public as a potential future candidate for the country's leadership. [Agencies]

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The party had a clear lead in opinion polls until a funding scandal erupted and threatened its chances of ousting Prime Minister Taro Aso's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for almost all of the past five decades.

Okada, 55, a soft-spoken former trade official with a "Mr Clean" image, has been seen as one of likely candidates to replace Ichiro Ozawa, along with Yukio Hatoyama, 62, another ex-party chief who was one of Ozawa's deputies.

Analysts said the Democrats' platform -- the core of which is a pledge to break bureaucrats' grip on policy to reduce wasteful spending and end the cossetting of vested interests -- is unlikely to change much, no matter who leads the party.