The race to pick Japan’s sixth leader in five years appeared yesterday to be shaping up as a battle between the most popular contender and a rival backed by a party powerbroker, although with five candidates in play, the outcome was hard to call.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who came under fire for his response to the March tsunami and the radiation crisis it triggered, stepped down as ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader yesterday, clearing the way for the Democrats to pick a successor on Monday.
“I want to make every effort to realize a society that does not rely on nuclear power,” Kan told a news conference.
Kan’s proposed energy policy shift is backed by most voters, but he was unable to parlay that public support into popularity.
NHK public TV said DPJ powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa would back Japanese Trade Minister Banri Kaieda, who has distanced himself from Kan’s tough anti-nuclear power stance, rather than Seiji Maehara, a former foreign minister who ranks high with ordinary voters. Maehara, a security hawk, has called for phasing out nuclear power by about 2030.
Kan’s successor faces huge challenges, including a strong yen seen as a threat to the export-reliant economy, rebuilding from the devastation of the March disasters, ending the radiation crisis at a crippled nuclear plant, forging a new energy policy and curbing public debt while funding the social welfare costs of an ageing society.
Rating agency Moody’s this week downgraded Japan’s sovereign debt a notch, citing its revolving-door leadership as an obstacle to effective economic policies.
With five lawmakers including Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda jostling for the job, a run-off between the top two candidates might be needed if none wins a majority in the first vote.
“The question is who will be the two top candidates — Meahara and maybe Kaieda, and how other groups would go in a second round,” Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano said.
A rift over the role of Ozawa, a political mastermind with an image as an old-style wheeler-dealer, has plagued the DPJ since the novice party swept to power in 2009 pledging change. Some admire his skills, while others worry his negative image damages the party with the public.
Whether and when to raise taxes to curb a public debt already twice the size of Japan’s US$5 trillion economy is a focus of debate in the leadership race.
However, any decision by Ozawa on who to back is seen likely to be decided more by his hopes of boosting his clout than by policy positions.
Speculation had simmered that Ozawa might back a mystery candidate or even support Noda, the most conservative of the contenders.
Ozawa long ago proposed raising the sales tax — long viewed as a taboo by many Japanese politicians — to fund social welfare, but more recently has promoted populist policies to give consumers more spending power.
Most other candidates agree on the need to curb debt, but are cautious about the timing of a sales tax hike and oppose higher levies for rebuilding from the March disasters.
Maehara, who promises to focus economic policy on promoting growth and beating deflation, is the most popular with voters among seven contenders jostling for the nation’s top job.
However, only DPJ lawmakers can vote in the party leadership race, the winner of which becomes prime minister because of the party’s majority in the Japanese parliament’s lower house.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2