Japan’s LDP looks to put off election

Japan’s Liberal Democratic party is likely to delay an election as long as possible for fear of being thrown out of power for only the second time since the second world war, one of the ruling party’s most prominent politicians has told the Financial Times.

Yuriko Koike, former defence minister, who is considered an outside candidate to succeed Yasuo Fukuda as prime minister, said the opposition Democratic Party of Japan had a “high chance” of winning power if a general election were called soon.

The LDP has governed continuously since it was formed in 1955, save for nine months in opposition in the early 1990s.

“There will be no election initiated by Prime Minister Fukuda,” Ms Koike said in remarks likely to raise concern about continued parliamentary paralysis.

“What does Sun Tzu say? ‘Do not fight a losing battle.’”

The parliamentary process has ground to a halt since the opposition DPJ won control of the weaker upper house last September, giving it wide powers to block legislation. This year, the governorship of the Bank of Japan was left open for several weeks after the DPJ vetoed the first two nominees, while parliament has become bogged down in an arcane debate about road tax.

Mr Fukuda, whose popularity is hovering precariously in the mid-20s in opinion polls, had been widely expected to seek a way out of the logjam by calling an election this year, possibly soon after he hosts the Group of Eight summit in July.

However, Ms Koike’s remarks, confirmed by another leading member of the ruling party, suggest the LDP may push the election closer to September 2009, when it is obliged to dissolve parliament.

One politician said ruling party MPs, fearful of losing their seats, had adopted the mantra: “No election under Mr Fukuda”, indicating they would seek a fresh leader to take them into the polls. But they were also worried that support for the party itself had, for the first time, dropped below that of the opposition, according to several opinion polls.

Ms Koike said political gridlock was damaging the government’s ability to pass urgent reforms, which she characterised as the establishment of proper political control over the change-resistant bureaucracy.

“We have achieved 50 per cent of the needed reforms and we really must continue,” she said, referring to the policies implemented by her mentor, Junichiro Koizumi, prime minister from 2001 to 2006. “But we have been stalling or even going backwards, which is the least effective outcome of all,” she said. “That is the sense of crisis I feel.”

Ms Koike defended Mr Koizumi’s free-market policies, symbolised by postal privatisation, saying it was ridiculous to blame them for widening the income gap.

Japan remained the most equal of capitalist societies, she said, with “0.001 inch of disparities”.