Japanese powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, facing charges over a funding scandal, said on Thursday he would stay in the ruling party, clouding government efforts to reach policy deals with opposition parties in a divided parliament.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan is struggling with a wide range of challenges including not only how to deal with Ozawa, but also a weak economy threatened by a rising yen and strained ties with China.
“I would like to clarify the facts there [in court] and want to do my best to reach a conclusion showing that there has been no wrongdoing,” Ozawa told reporters. “I will simply continue political activities so long as I am needed.”
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
A judicial panel ruled on -Monday that Ozawa, who leads the largest bloc in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), must be charged over a funding scandal, clouding his chances of making another grab at power after having just lost a party leadership vote to Kan last month.
Ozawa has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Ozawa, 68, is a political mastermind widely credited with helping engineer the election win that swept the DPJ to power for the first time last year. However, his image as an old-style fixer has made him unpopular with voters.
Kan now faces the choice of either forcing Ozawa out, with the risk that a large number of Democratic lawmakers go with him, or letting him stay, putting support ratings for Kan’s -government at risk.
Senior Democratic Party officials will likely meet on Tuesday to discuss what action to take regarding Ozawa, DPJ Secretary-General Katsuya Okada told a news conference.
Kan’s support ratings have already been sliding in recent polls as many voters have been frustrated with how Tokyo handled a bitter territorial feud with Beijing.
He has been grilled by -opposition lawmakers in parliament on Ozawa’s funding scandal this week, hampering the prime minister’s efforts to gain opposition support for a planned extra budget for the current fiscal year to March 31 as the government tries to keep an economic recovery on track.
Kan said earlier in the day that Ozawa should make his own decision on how to explain his stance.
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