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Posted by: Timmy on May 11, 2009 - 02:30 PM
Politics
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Ichiro Ozawa, the Japanese opposition leader, announced his resignation on Monday, saying he wanted to prevent a campaign funding scandal involving one of his aides from hurting his party’s chances of unseating the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party.
Mr. Ozawa told a hastily gathered press conference that he will step down as head of Japan’s main opposition Democratic Party, which has seen its lead in public opinion polls shrink as a result of the scandal. The scandal erupted in early March, when prosecutors arrested one of Mr. Ozawa’s aides for allegedly taking bribes from a construction company.
Mr. Ozawa had tried to ride out the controversy, criticizing the prosecutors for what he called a politically motivated investigation, while stopping short of accusing them of helping the unpopular Liberal Democrats. But the scandal appears to have turned Japanese voters off to both parties ahead of a national election that must be held by Sept. 10.
By resigning, Mr. Ozawa, 66, was relinquishing what has been a nearly two-decade personal quest to end the Liberal Democrats’ half-century hold on power. Before the scandal, that goal appeared within his grasp as political stalemate and economic stagnation turned voters against Prime Minister Taro Aso.
“I hope by removing myself, I can remove even the smallest negative points for the party and, above all, help it achieve a changing of governments,” Mr. Ozawa said. “This is in the interest of the Japanese people, and is the mission of the Democratic Party.”
The resignation appears certain to throw Japan’s already murky political situation into further confusion. The scandal has added to the widespread perception here that political paralysis has hindered Japan from responding quickly to the global financial crisis, or coming up with a formula for ending the nation’s longer-term economic decline.
His resignation also leaves a void at the top of Japan’s largest opposition party. While Mr. Ozawa was never seen as a populist or a gifted public speaker, his acumen as a political campaigner and fund-raiser were seen as the glue that held together the Democrats, a broad coalition that ranges from conservatives like Mr. Ozawa to former socialists.
This wide spectrum of views has made it hard for the party to come up with a clear platform with which to challenge the Liberal Democrats. The Democratic Party has called for clipping the wings of the nation’s powerful bureaucrats, protecting consumers over industry and showing more diplomatic independence from Washington, while not going so far as to end the security alliance with the United States.
During the press conference, Mr. Ozawa told reporters he will continue to serve as a legislator, and to work to end the Liberal Democrats’ reign. But with persistent reports of Mr. Ozawa’s failing health, many political analysts have wondered if a resignation will effectively end the career of one of Japan’s most skilled political insiders.
Mr. Ozawa is known as one of the last of Japan’s shadow shoguns, having learned as a young lawmaker from past Japanese prime ministers like Kakuei Tanaka, who invented Japan’s current version of pork-barrel politics. Once anointed as a future leader of the Liberal Democrats, Mr. Ozawa bolted the party in 1993 to help organize the fledgling centrist opposition.
The current scandal proved damaging to Mr. Ozawa partly because it touched on one of his party’s weakest points with voters: the concern that Mr. Ozawa was no cleaner than the Liberal Democrats he was trying to depose. It did not help Mr. Ozawa that after arresting his aide and raiding his office, prosecutors spent weeks leaking damaging accusations about him to the Japanese press.
An opinion poll released Monday by the Yomiuri newspaper showed the opposition’s lead shrinking, with 30 percent of respondents saying they would vote for the Democrats, versus 27 percent for the governing Liberal Democrats, down from much wider margins before the scandal. In the same poll, 71 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Mr. Ozawa’s decision to stay on after his aide’s arrest.
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