Japan’s main opposition party on Friday rejected an extraordinary offer from Yasuo Fukuda, prime minister, to form a grand coalition aimed at rescuing the country from political deadlock.
Mr Fukuda, president of the ruling Liberal Democratic party, made the proposal during a one-hour private meeting with Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. His offer, the rough equivalent of George W. Bush proposing to form a joint Republican-Democrat cabinet, reflects frustration at the parliamentary deadlock that has resulted from July’s upper house election.
In that election, the DPJ seized the majority in the upper house, giving it considerable power to veto legislation. The parties this week clashed over legislation permitting the continuation of a Japanese refuelling naval mission in the Indian Ocean for US-led operations in Afghanistan. Opposition from the DPJ scuppered the extension, forcing Japan to end its six-year deployment on Thursday in spite of strong urgings from the US to continue the refuelling.
The political deadlock threatens to play havoc with domestic, as well as foreign, policy. The LDP has an overriding two-thirds majority in the more powerful lower house, but political analysts say it is wary of bulldozing legislation through for fear of antagonising a public worried about pensions and stagnant wages and disgusted with a succession of political scandals.
Most analysts expect Mr Fukuda will dissolve the lower house next year – although he does not have to by law until September 2009 – in an election that could conceivably hand power to the opposition DPJ, depriving the LDP of power for only the second time in half a century.
Mr Ozawa and other DPJ leaders rejected the offer, citing their strong mandate in July’s election, which eventually led to the resignation, in September, of Shinzo Abe as prime minister.
“There were many among the party executives who were against even beginning policy discussions,” Mr Ozawa said. “I have just told Prime Minister Fukuda that we cannot swallow, cannot accept.”
Mr Fukuda told reporters last night: “I told Ozawa it would be good to create a new framework to break the deadlock in parliament.” Nobutaka Machimura, chief cabinet secretary, said: “The opposition has rejected Mr Fukuda’s very serious proposal with unseemly haste. I think that is a great shame.”
Jiro Yamaguchi, a political analyst at Hokkaido university, said Mr Ozawa had no option but to turn down the offer. “The DPJ was successful in July’s election because Ozawa was pushing for a change of government. There is no legitimacy in seeking a coalition right now.”
He said the LDP was in a bind. Given the DPJ’s control of the upper house, it could not govern the country properly. If it dissolved the lower house it risked losing its two-thirds majority and would then be in an even weaker position. “The LDP must co-opt the DPJ if it wants to continue stable government,” he said.
Takao Toshikawa, a political analyst, said the situation could yet backfire on the opposition if it appeared to be obstructionist. In sabotaging Japan’s contribution to “the war on terror”, Mr Ozawa was like a rebellious schoolboy with his feet on the desk in Mr Bush’s classroom, Mr Toshikawa said.
