Asia-Pacific

Japan power broker to challenge PM over crisis

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-27 09:57

TOKYO - Japan's ruling party power broker Ichiro Ozawa is ready to challenge Prime Minister Naoto Kan, adding to the pressure on the unpopular leader as he struggles with the nuclear crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Ozawa told the newspaper in an interview there was a growing anxiety and frustration over the government's response to the March 11 earthquake and the nuclear crisis and asked whether he would support a no-confidence motion against Kan, he said:

"I am thinking about how to deal with it right now."

Japan's biggest opposition party plans to submit a no-confidence motion to parliament, its leader Sadakazu Tanigaki said on Thursday.

The motion needs backing from about 75 out of more than 300 ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers and it is not clear how many of them would be prepared to do so, forcing Kan either to resign or call a snap poll.

But Ozawa's interview was a clear sign of a deepening rift within the ruling party, where dissenters fear Kan's policy shift away from his campaign pledges and his poor ratings will scuttle their chances at the next election, due by 2013.  

Ozawa, a seasoned political strategist who once headed the ruling party and last year challenged Kan in an party leadership contest, was indicted this year over an alleged violation of campaign-funding laws. He has stayed in the party despite Kan's request to "distance himself" until his trial is over.

"I was thinking about just fading away but now I feel I have a bit more work to do," Ozawa told the Journal, adding that he believed Kan should go.

"If the prime minister cannot implement policies, it's meaningless for him to stay in power. I think the sooner he's replaced the better."