Japan PM Set to Keep Job Ahead of Tough Election

Japan's unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso looks set to keep his job and hold an election next month after efforts to force a ruling party meeting that could have pushed him to quit were blocked by party heavyweights.

Koji Sasahara / AP Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso, currently secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, speaks at a meeting of the LDP's lawmakers in Tokyo Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007. Following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's surprise resignation, the LDP is to decide an election schedule to choose a new party president. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Aso sparked chaos in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) party when he announced plans for an Aug. 30 general election on Monday, just a day after the party was trounced by the rival Democratic Party in a Tokyo assembly election.

Polls show the LDP will likely lose the general election, ending more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the business-friendly party and improving chances of resolving a policy deadlock caused by a divided parliament. The opposition controls the upper house and can delay bills.

The LDP's fading fortunes have fuelled moves to oust Aso before the election, with a handful of LDP rebels presenting a petition for a formal meeting of parliamentarians to press their views.

But their plans were complicated after some lawmakers whose names were on the petition later said they had never signed, while others said they would retract their signatures if the gathering was used to ditch Aso.

The party has decided to hold a less formal meeting instead on Tuesday, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said. The meeting would lack the authority to revise party rules enabling a change in party leadership.

"The title of the meeting aside, I'm pleased that the party will take such an important process where the party leader and lawmakers exchange their opinions before the LDP heads for election," Yosano told a news conference.

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Yosano -- who has distanced himself from Aso in the past week despite being his right-hand man on the economy -- was unclear on whether he would sign off on the dissolution of the lower house expected on Tuesday, although Aso could fire cabinet members who rebel and go ahead with the move without their support.

Agriculture Minister Shigeru Ishiba said a meeting was needed to unite the party, although he was against replacing Aso because LDP lawmakers had chosen him themselves less than a year ago.

"It is definitely necessary to have a forum to unify our determination to fight under Prime Minister Aso," Ishiba told broadcaster TBS on Friday.

Other LDP lawmakers have said the party should focus its energies on hammering out its campaign pledges to counter the Democrats. Analysts have said the Democrats' large spending plans could inflate public debt and push up government bond yields.

Japan has had four leaders in as many years and voters may be put off with another leadership change, analysts say. Aso's two predecessors quit abruptly after a year in office.

While popular Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe is considered a potential alternative to Aso, many analysts are sceptical he can single-handedly reverse the LDP's grim prospects ahead of the election.

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