Fukuda approved as Japanese PM

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Tuesday September 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Yasuo Fukuda was today approved as Japan's prime minister, immediately pledging to improve his party's fortunes amid mounting calls for an early general election.

Mr Fukuda, 71, a former chief cabinet secretary from the moderate wing of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP), easily won the vote, held among lower house MPs, to replace Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation on September 12.

Photo: Yasuo Fukuda bows after being voted in as Japanese prime minister.

In a token show of defiance, the opposition-controlled upper house voted for the Democratic party leader, Ichiro Ozawa.

Mr Abe, who has spent almost two weeks in hospital being treated for a stress-related illness, attended his final cabinet meeting this morning before he and his ministers resigned en masse.

Mr Fukuda acknowledged that his party's popularity had suffered during a year of scandals and gaffes involving cabinet ministers, and after his predecessor's failure to address voter concerns over the economy and pensions.

"The situation surrounding the LDP is very severe, and we will face difficulty in keeping the government under control unless we have the cooperation of all party members," he said.

But he will first need to draw on his reputed skills as a consensus-builder in what promises to be a bruising parliamentary battle over plans to extend Japan's controversial refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean.

The Democratic party said it would not back down from its threat to block the proposed extension in the upper house, where it became the largest single party in July.

The refuelling mission, which Japan began in 2001 in support of US forces operating in Afghanistan, is scheduled to end on November 1.

Mr Ozawa, meanwhile, repeated his call for an early general election. "The only thing to be done is to seek the will of the people," he told reporters.