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Prime Minister Taro Aso will be able to stay in office for now, as his ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday turned down demands by some dissident lawmakers to hold a plenary meeting to sack Aso as LDP president before next month's national election.
LDP Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda announced in a news conference that the party will instead hold a less formal form of a meeting Tuesday morning and Aso will sum up the party's consecutive losses in the recent local elections, declare his determination over the upcoming national election and beef up the tattered party unity.
''I hear people saying, 'What has the LDP been doing?''' Hosoda said at the party's headquarters, playing up the need to strengthen the party's solidarity ahead of the Aug 30 election, in which analysts believe the LDP could well lose to the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
In tandem with the leadership's decision, Aso is now geared up for dissolving the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon as originally planned. He is set to formalize the plan on Diet dissolution at the Cabinet meeting to be held before the scheduled forum, according to sources close to the premier.
But former Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, one of the key rebel lawmakers, was not satisfied with the leadership's decision.
''I repeatedly asked (Hosoda) to hold a formal plenary meeting, take time and engage in thorough discussions,'' Nakagawa told reporters after meeting with Hosoda.
''The LDP is for the people. In order to rejuvenate it, the president who is the top leader needs to show his determination and passion toward the national election,'' he said. ''If he cannot satisfy the party, he won't be able to satisfy the people.''
An anti-Aso group led by Nakagawa submitted Thursday to the LDP leadership signatures from what they claim is over one-third of the party's Diet members, the minimum required to seek a Joint Plenary Meeting of Party Members of Both Houses of the Diet, in which they could also call for a presidential race to replace Aso.
But Masatoshi Wakabayashi, chairman of the joint plenary meeting, who joined the news conference with Hosoda, said, ''We concluded that the signatures don't meet the one-third requirement'' with some lawmakers who are on the list denying that they ever offered their signatures and asking to have their names taken off.
On the list appeared two members of Aso's Cabinet -- Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano as well as Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Both Yosano and Ishiba on Friday welcomed the party's decision to stage the meeting next Tuesday.
''Apart from the name (of the meeting), it is satisfying to take an important step,'' Yosano said at a separate press conference.
Ishiba said separately that the meeting must be ''a place to discuss what went wrong,'' apparently referring to the consecutive local election losses.
In submitting the petition, the dissidents have voiced concern that the LDP could suffer a severe setback if it campaigns for the lower house election under Aso, following significant losses in Sunday's Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly race and other local polls.
Aso on Thursday was willing to attend any gathering. ''I am willing to attend a meeting should it be set up and listen to what they have to say and tell them about my own thoughts,'' he said. ''I have no intention of running away.''
© Japan Today
13 Comments
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timorborder
Dead men walking. Toxic Taro is going to lead the rest of the LDP lemmings over the cliff. This is the guy who managed to record zero votes among his own party membership when competing against Koizumi for leadership of the LDP. Don't expect the wider electorate to be any more forgiving. If I was an LDP candidate at the moment, it would be out with the Stanley knife, surgically removing Taro's mush from any posters, etc. This election could get very interesting indeed.
gogogo
Don't want to mess about with the Olympic bid coming up is my guess.
Gaijinocchio
It's not really Aso running away, but more like getting a comically large boot in the rear as he flies out the door.
Seriously, it's impossible for the DPJ to do a worse job than the LDP and Aso cabinet.
zander341
We, the LDP, have decided not to fire our leader. Now, kindly vote for him this fall.
smithinjapan
"...Aso will sum up the party’s consecutive losses in the recent local elections, declare his determination over the upcoming national election and beef up the tattered party unity."
=
Aso will bow and apologize profusely, and pay off a few people with back room deals.
ilcub76
You know you're in trouble when your hand-picked cabinet turns on you. Does he not get the message, or is he too busy wining and dining at night to watch the news?
movieguy
These gutless wonders. They obviously signed the petition and were threatened by the powers that be. I want the LDP to fail miserably and I'm glad these LDP idiots are protecting their friend as opposed to doing what's best for the country, but I keep hoping someone will grow a backbone in this country.
cleo
They were saying on the telly this morning that when they signed, the petition had had a different cover sheet so that they thought they were signing up for something else.
DeepAir65
I am sorry but that is even more worrying - like something out of a bad spy movie
movieguy
And if anyone believes that I've got some swamp land to sell you in Chiba.
In this day and age who signs something without taking a careful look at it??? Especially at that level of politics. They should lose their jobs along with Aso for being so stupid.
Ninjazilla
congratulations to this loser
GW
this whole blurb is a perfect example of "" J-democracy "" in action.........how utterly pathetic & depressing, there is nothing even remotely that cud be considered +ve.
And nothing whatsoever even remotely looking like leadership, I have come to the conclusion that leaders are just NOT part of J-culture & probably never will be, we will be going down slow...........
JmannGod
great - he won't be able to escape the crushing defeat to follow - hope the DPJ instigate unweighted electorates for subsequent elections. That would spell the end of the LDP for good.