A crowded race to be Japan’s next prime minister started yesterday, with candidates vowing to support the US-led “war on terror” but clashing on the troubled economy.
Five lawmakers are vying to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who abruptly quit last week — a record number of candidates for a race of Japan’s long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Front-runner Taro Aso, a flamboyant former foreign minister, cast himself as the best candidate to do battle against a resurgent opposition as expectations grow of a snap election soon after the LDP’s Sept. 22 vote.
PHOTO: EPA
“Japanese politics is facing a crisis it has never experienced before,” Aso, a 67-year-old making his fourth bid for the job, told a joint news conference with his rivals.
“Compared with other candidates, I think I have more experience and achievements. I am running with a determination and resolution to tackle the various problems facing Japan,” said Aso, currently the LDP secretary general.
Aso signaled he would end Japan’s military mission flying goods and personnel into Iraq in support of the US-led coalition, bowing to a demand of the opposition.
But Aso and his rivals all vowed to defy the opposition and continue a separate naval mission in the Indian Ocean that provides fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan.
Yuriko Koike, a former TV anchorwoman seeking to be the nation’s first female prime minister, said that mission was key to ensuring that officially pacifist Japan is “respected” by the world community.
“I can only call it heartbreaking if I would have to bring them back merely because of the domestic political situation,” said Koike, a former defense and environment minister.
Another candidate, Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense chief who spearheaded Japan’s landmark ground deployment to Iraq that ended in 2006, said the global fight against terrorism had reached its “most critical stage.”
Japan’s opposition is against any Japanese military involvement in Iraq and forced a temporary halt last year to the Indian Ocean mission.
LDP leaders have in recent years sought a higher military profile for Japan, arguing that the US ally must do more to contribute to international security despite its pacifist post-World War II constitution.
But the candidates clashed on whether to raise taxes to rebuild government finances in the world’s second-largest economy.
Japan has the worst public debt of any developed nation, partly a legacy of efforts to recover from recession in the 1990s, but the economy again contracted in the second quarter amid a global downturn.
“I doubt we can raise the consumption tax right now because it would send a chill through the economy,” Aso said.
But rival Kaoru Yosano, the 70-year-old minister for economic and fiscal policy, said politicians had a responsibility to preserve the pension system, which faces crisis as the population rapidly ages.
“As prime minister, I would like to leave Japan as a good place for future generations,” Yosano said.
“We must ensure the sustainability of the pension and medical systems,” he said.
“While there are technical problems, the consumption tax is the unique solution to provide a stable source of financing,” he said.
The other candidate, 51-year-old Nobuteru Ishihara, has pledged to appeal to a younger generation and push forward administrative reforms.
Fukuda came under intense criticism for raising medical costs on the elderly.
A weekend poll showed the LDP had gained in support after Fukuda’s resignation and now enjoyed a narrow edge over the opposition.
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