DPJ defeats LDP in 1st nat'l-level election under Fukuda

Apr 27 11:08 AM US/Eastern

YAMAGUCHI, Japan, April 28 (AP) - (Kyodo) — The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan defeated the ruling Liberal Democratic Party by a wide margin in Sunday's House of Representatives by-election in Yamaguchi Prefecture against the backdrop of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's unpopular policies over road tax and elderly medical care issues.

The victory of Hideo Hiraoka, 54, in the first national-level election under the seven-month-old Fukuda administration is expected to raise doubts about the prime minister's leadership, while emboldening the DPJ to step up its pressure on Fukuda to call for an early general election.

"It's the beginning of the end of LDP rule," DPJ Diet affairs chief Kenji Yamaoka said. Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, an LDP member, said the outcome will not affect the government's plan to restore gasoline tax surcharges, which expired in March due to resistance by opposition parties.

In the prefecture's No. 2 constituency, the DPJ candidate, a former lower house member, garnered 116,348 votes, while LDP candidate Shigetaro Yamamoto, 59, a former bureaucrat in the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, took 94,404 votes.

Both the LDP and the DPJ threw full support to their candidates during the campaigning, with their eyes set on the next general election which may take place possibly later this year and will be a crucial test for whether the long-ruling LDP can stay in power.

"I think this is a result of accepting (people's) calls (for me) to do something with various government policies," Hiraoka said. "This by- election is the latest public will. I would like to watch how the Fukuda administration will deal with it."

Hiraoka was also backed by the tiny opposition Social Democratic Party, while Yamamoto was supported by the LDP's coalition partner, the New Komeito party.

Following the election, Fukuda, whose support ratings have fallen below the "danger" line of 30 percent in recent media polls, may face criticism even from among ruling party members over his handling of the government. Fukuda doubles as LDP president.

Meanwhile, the DPJ is expected to seek taking the initiative in parliament on the back of the "people's will" shown in the latest by- election and the House of Councillors election last July. Opposition parties won control of the upper house in the July election.

Voter turnout was 69 percent, down 3.45 percentage points from the general election in 2005. But reflecting the high voter interest in the by-election, absentee ballots cast by Saturday stood at around 9,000 more than the comparable figure in the 2005 election.

The by-election comes at a time when the ruling and opposition parties are entering a crucial stage in their tug-of-war over gasoline and other road-related tax surcharges.

The ruling parties plan to seek passage of a tax reform bill that would reinstate the surcharges by resorting to an overriding revote in the ruling coalition-controlled lower house on Wednesday.

The day is the earliest possible date when such a revote becomes possible under Constitutional provisions.

To counter such moves, the DPJ said it will consider the appropriate time to submit a censure motion against the prime minister in the upper house. The motion would be nonbinding, but if the upper house passed it, it would nonetheless be another blow to the government.

The government and the ruling parties have insisted that the failure to pass the tax bill will cause serious revenue shortfalls for local governments. But the move to reinstate the surcharges, about 25 yen per liter of gasoline, could trigger a public backlash at a time when oil prices are already high.

According to Kyodo News exit polls on the road tax issue, 65.8 percent were against the government's policy of restoring the gasoline surcharges, while 34.2 percent supported the idea.

While calling for abolishing the surcharges, the DPJ side has also stepped up criticism over a new health insurance system for people aged 75 or older inaugurated April 1.

The system has triggered complaints among the elderly, regarded as a support base for Fukuda, over premium deductions from pension benefits and bureaucratic blunders.

According to a Kyodo News analysis of voting behavior of people aged 70 or older based on exit polls, Yamamoto secured 53.2 percent of support from them. But he apparently failed to win votes from all the supporters of the ruling coalition because the figure falls short of the 55.4 percent who said they support the LDP and the 3.7 percent who said they support New Komeito.

A sense of distrust over such government policies has apparently led to the DPJ's victory.

The outcome also reflected voters' disappointment over Fukuda's perceived lack of leadership in handling the divided Diet, which has even resulted in a temporary leadership vacuum at the Bank of Japan.

Yamamoto, who had to explain the new health insurance system during the campaign, said, "I've been thinking that it can't become an issue in Yamaguchi. I wanted a little more time to have people understand it."

Issues that have also attracted attention in the election campaign include a planned relocation of U.S. carrier-borne fighter jets to the city of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, which is part of the No. 2 constituency, from Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Yamamoto is a supporter of the relocation plan, while Hiraoka is against it.

The by-election was held to fill a lower house seat which became vacant after Yoshihiko Fukuda resigned to run in the February Iwakuni mayoral election, which he won.

Hiraoka was elected for the fourth time as a lower house member.

Hiraoka was a lower house member elected under a proportional representation system but he lost the seat when he filed his candidacy in Sunday's election.

Kyodo News picked 24 polling stations and sampled 1,007 voters for the exit polling.