The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Democratic Party of Japan may be celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding as it presses ahead with its bid to take power by winning the next general election, but the party still remains unable to rise above the weaknesses stemming from its diverse composition.
As a result of its major victory in the House of Councillors election in July last year, the DPJ now has the largest share of seats in the upper chamber, making it plausible for the DPJ to declare its intention to take the reins of government by winning the next general election of the House of Representatives.
The DPJ, however, still lacks unity when it comes to forging a consensus among the disparate groups within the party, a problem the party has faced since its very conception.
DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa, speaking at a May Day-related meeting sponsored by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) at Tokyo's Yoyogi Park on Saturday, reiterated the party's "firm resolve" to wrest power from the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito.
"To improve people's lives, a change of government is needed to carry out a major spring cleaning of Japanese politics," Ozawa said. "So let's join hands to accomplish this great task of changing the party in power."
Ozawa joined the DPJ in September 2003 after having the party he then headed, Jiyuto (Liberal Party), merged with the DPJ.
To achieve his long-cherished goal of taking power, Ozawa has set about strengthening ties with the nation's largest labor organization, Rengo, one of the biggest bodies supporting the DPJ.
At the meeting, two other DPJ leaders, Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama and his predecessor Naoto Kan, who both played key roles in founding the party, stressed the importance of further beefing up the unity of the party.
"Under the leadership of Mr. Ozawa, the unity of our party has noticeably strengthened," Hatoyama said during a press conference Friday.
"We need to share the goal of bringing about a change of administration by returning to the original political ideals of our party to transform this country into one comprising truly autonomous local entities," he said.
For his part, Kan said at a separate press conference, "Although we had every intention to take the helm of government at an earlier stage, we fell short of achieving that goal."
"What's most important for our party is to learn to be patient when we need to be patient," he said.
The DPJ came into being in its current form on April 27, 1998, through a merger of four opposition parties: the previous DPJ, the Good Governance Party (Minseito), the Fraternity Party (Shinto-Yuai) and the Democratic Reform Party (Minshu-Kaikaku Rengo). Participating in the merger that led to the DPJ's creation were 131 lawmakers, 93 from the lower house and 38 from the upper house.
Following its establishment, the party saw its Diet strength expand in successive national elections.
In the general election in September 2005, however, the DPJ suffered a crushing defeat as the administration led by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi swept to victory under the banner of Koizumi's initiative to privatize the postal services.
In April the following year, Ozawa took the post of DPJ head, giving full play to his clout in boosting party unity, leading the DPJ to the big win in the 2007 upper house election.
Ozawa's strength in leading the party lies in his reputation within the party for being a man who is "strong in elections."
But this also means that if the possibility of a dissolution of the lower house and a general election in the near future becomes slim, Ozawa will have to fret over how to maintain his leadership intact.
Indeed, voices of discontent over Ozawa's leadership style have been growing louder recently because of his unrelenting confrontational stance against the ruling coalition, as evidenced by the DPJ's rejection three times in a row of government-proposed appointments for the new Bank of Japan governor and vice governors.
(Apr. 28, 2008)
Posts
