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Crisis-hit Democrats lean toward Ozawa as temporary chief

Japan's main opposition Democratic party, reeling from the resignation of its leader, is leaning towards offering the top job to a veteran lawmaker with a reputation as a backroom brawler, media said yesterday.

Seiji Maehara resigned on Friday, along with the rest of the Democratic leadership, to take responsibility for a botched attempt to discredit the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

The shake-up at the Democratic Party of Japan, the country's biggest opposition bloc, marks a new low for a party that was trounced in last September's elections and dents hopes for the quick emergence of a vibrant two-party political system in Japan.

Weakened by the loss in the general election, the Democrats lost still more ground after lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata failed to prove charges he had made in parliament of shady links between the LDP and Takafumi Horie, former chief executive of scandal-hit Internet firm Livedoor.

With many of the party's biggest names tainted by the scandal, the Democrats are considering making veteran Ichiro Ozawa their leader, an attempt to stabilize the fractious party.

A former heavyweight in the LDP who deserted the party in 1993, helping to topple it briefly from power, Ozawa, now 63, has a high public profile and a reputation as a reformist -- traits the party may need to revive its tattered fortunes.

But Ozawa, an adept backroom dealer whom critics have accused of being better at destroying the old order than helping to build the new, could also prove a double-edged sword.

"This would be something of a last chance for Ozawa, but his value to the party all depends on what he does," said independent political commentator Harumi Arima.

"If he were to act the way he sometimes has in the past, this could prompt a lot of people to leave the party," he added.

Kyodo news agency quoted Yukio Hatoyama, himself a former party leader who quit as secretary-general on Friday, as telling reporters that Ozawa would be "the LDP's greatest fear."

Another name being floated is that of Naoto Kan, 59, who has led the party several times and narrowly lost a leadership election to Maehara last September.

Party elections for the new leader -- essentially a caretaker until a formal election in September -- take place on April 7.
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