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Strategies & Market Trends : JAPAN-Nikkei-Time to go back up? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: borb who wrote (1628)	11/25/1998 5:17:00 PM
From: chirodoc	Respond to of 3902

JAPAN: Tokyo thrown into turmoil over coalition By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo <Picture: Graph>The Japanese government was in turmoil yesterday after an agreement by the ruling Liberal Democratic party to form a coalition with the opposition Liberal party came close to collapse. Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Liberal party, criticised comments by LDP leaders suggesting that policy agreements were between party heads, not between the parties, and therefore not binding. He warned that unless principles agreed with Keizo Obuchi, the prime minister, were adopted, there would be no coalition and a general election should be held as soon as possible. In particular, he said that an agreement to reduce the number of cabinet ministers from 20 to 17 should be carried out immediately in a cabinet reshuffle. However, Yoshiro Mori, LDP secretary-general, said there was no need for immediate action as cabinet posts would be reduced when the number of ministries was reduced in line with reform proposals. Mr Ozawa also indicated he was still aiming for a temporary freeze of the 5 per cent consumption tax, which is unacceptable to the LDP. Mr Obuchi and Mr Ozawa had signed a document indicating their intent to form a coalition. But the recent tensions illustrate the lack of firm agreement between the two sides. LDP leaders backing the coalition stressed that the alliance would help stabilise the government and enable the governing party to pass crucial legislation through the Diet. Although the emergency budget does not need to be passed by the upper house, where the LDP lacks a majority, legislation related to the budget and key bills to implement new US-Japan security guidelines will need Diet approval. The coalition, which was agreed hastily without conducting the usual motions of building a consensus within the LDP, has sparked outrage among key LDP politicians who are antagonistic to Mr Ozawa. Junichiro Koizumi, former health minister, criticised the agreement and said the LDP might have won the Liberal party's co-operation but it was unlikely to win the support of the public. In a weekend poll by the liberal national daily, the Asahi Shimbun, 45 per cent of respondents disapproved of the coalition due to its ambiguous motives. Many LDP politicians are unhappy about the alliance with Mr Ozawa, whom the party has long considered enemy number one. Mr Ozawa's departure from the LDP in 1993, which triggered a party split, was widely blamed for the party's loss of its upper house majority. Hiromu Nonaka, the powerful chief cabinet secretary, once went so far as to call Mr Ozawa a "devil". The Liberal party, meanwhile, risks losing the support of loyal followers who believed Mr Ozawa's aim was to force the LDP out of government and revolutionise Japanese politics. If the return of Mr Ozawa's conservative elements to the LDP triggers the defection of the party's more liberal members, it may yet be Mr Ozawa who has the last laugh. But if the coalition crashes before it takes off, Mr Ozawa's Liberal party could face a slow route to oblivio