Party rivals Kamei and Ryutaro Hashimoto both favor borrowing more in the bond market, mindful that a recession may cost them votes in a July election.
Facing those challenges, Koizumi is sounding more like a politician ready to compromise than change.
Asked yesterday if he is considering additional government spending for this year, Koizumi said only that it was too early to say.
While his anti-party-policy statements early in the campaign raised his image as a reformer, recently "Koizumi has started to sound rather more conciliatory on the policy front," said Richard Jerram, a chief economist at ING Barings Securities (Japan) Ltd.
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