By Takashi Hirokawa and Toko SekiguchiDec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is growing divided because of Prime Minister Taro Aso’s lack of leadership, and some members may defect, lower-house lawmaker Yoshimi Watanabe said.
“Forming a new party is one option,” Watanabe said in an interview in his office yesterday in Tokyo. “In an ideal political system, politicians would be united under shared policy goals.”
Watanabe, 56, is part of a splinter group of at least 50 LDP lawmakers that met last week to discuss Aso’s policies. The gathering included former prime minister candidate Yuriko Koike.
The group “may become the center of political activity” after elections required by September 2009, said Naoto Nonaka, a political science professor at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.
More people said they would prefer opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa as prime minister over Aso for the first time in three newspaper surveys published Dec. 8. Thirty-five percent of respondents chose Ozawa in an Asahi poll compared with 30 percent who preferred Aso. In a Yomiuri poll published the same day 36 percent chose Ozawa while 29 percent favored Aso. Neither survey provided a margin of error.
“The LDP’s mission may be over if the party abandons its efforts to change the current centralized system of government led by bureaucrats,” Watanabe said.
The LDP may seek to remove outspoken Aso critics such as Watanabe from the party by fielding “assassin” candidates against them in upcoming elections, Jiji Press quoted LDP Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda as saying this week. The term refers to contenders who run against members of their own party.
To contact the reporter on this story: Takashi Hirokawa in Tokyo at thirokawa@bloomberg.net; Toko Sekiguchi in Tokyo at Tsekiguchi3@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: December 18, 2008 21:32 EST
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