Confusion reigned in Japan's Diet yesterday after a reformist rival to Japan's unpopular prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, flip-flopped on whether to vote in favor of a no-confidence motion in his government.
Koichi Kato, a former executive of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), at first backed off from a threat to support the motion, saying he would abstain along with his ally, Taku Yamasaki, following 11th-hour backroom negotiations.
Minutes later he announced at a news conference that he would support the motion but told his supporters to abstain in the face of almost certain defeat, sparking pandemonium among the 62 members of the two factions in the multi-group LDP.
"Unfortunately, the outlook for the vote is extremely delicate and we are not in a situation where we could necessarily claim victory," Kato said. "So you should retreat with dignity."
After being mobbed by supporters who urged him not to vote alone for the motion proposed by four opposition parties, Kato left, possibly for parliament to vote in the 480-member Lower House at around midnight Taiwan time.
"Please stay here, there may be some time down the road in the future when we can rise again together," he said as he left.
Without substantial support from Kato's faction and that of his ally, the motion faces defeat.
Talk of a last-minute deal had raised questions over whether the two sides had reached a compromise that would result in Mori's resignation, possibly after a supplementary budget passes parliament in early December.
Kato had said he would not vote for the motion if he received assurances that Mori would step down at an early date.
Even if the LDP does manage to avoid a split, some analysts say the party that has ruled Japan almost without interruption for nearly half a century and has come to symbolize a stagnant "Old Japan" may be hollowed out due to public disgust with its secretive, scandal-tainted ways and pork-barrel policies.
The stakes have been high and party barons spent hours shuttered behind closed-doors negotiating a deal to stave off defeat. If the no-confidence vote passes, Mori has 10 days either to resign or to call a general election.
Speculation had been rife that Mori might step down ahead of the vote to avoid spliting the party.
He voiced determination to survive the greatest threat to his seven-month premiership.
"We are in a situation where we must not create a political vacuum," Mori said.
Kato has said he wants to topple Mori to revive the LDP and wean it from the pork-barrel spending that has left Japan with the worst public debt among advanced nations, though he adds he would not tighten fiscal policy drastically soon.
The 190-member opposition cannot pass the motion alone and needs support from Kato and his allies in the 480-seat Lower House. The measure needs half the votes cast to be enacted.
More than a dozen legislators in the faction led by Kato, who has mounted his rebellion from within Mori's own dominant LDP, had decided to support the prime minister, domestic media said.
Mori's already limp popularity took a nosedive after his latest verbal gaffe in October that critics said endangered delicate talks with North Korea, and the resignation of a second cabinet minister over a scandal.
Mori said he took the opinion polls seriously but his duty was to fulfil his responsibilities, including ensuring the nation's fragile economic recovery stays on track.
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