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Japan to witness changes

— Photo: AFP

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda (right) with secretary-general of LDP Taro Aso in Tokyo.

SINGAPORE: Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Monday announced his resignation and called for “a new team” and “a new framework” to address the problems of a decelerating economy.

The 72-year-old Mr. Fukuda, at the helm for about a year, has been under intense pressure for several months now, thanks to his consistently low opinion-poll ratings. A poll published on Monday gave him an approval quotient of 29 per cent.

Mr. Fukuda told journalists in Tokyo that he was guided by a desire to avoid “a political vacuum.”

He asked Taro Aso, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, the main constituent of the ruling coalition, to make arrangements for choosing a leader.

Mr. Aso himself is said to have prime ministerial ambitions.

With the LDP having led successive governments for over 50 years, except for a brief period of less than a year, the president of this party has traditionally held the Prime Minister’s post.

A sweeping political change, as now signalled by Mr. Fukuda, was indicated by Japanese diplomatic sources in the context of the recent Group of Eight summit in Japan.

The sources had, at the time, told this correspondent that the political leaders were merely waiting for the summit to be over before a new arrangement could be considered.

Mr. Fukuda’s tenure has been short just like his predecessor, Shinzo Abe’s was. Both these leaders have suffered, in public esteem, in contrast with the high rating of the charismatic but controversial leader, Junichiro Koizumi.

Shortly before Mr. Fukuda announced his move, Ichiro Ozawa, president of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), said he would stand for re-election as the party leader later this month. The DPJ’s stunning success in the elections to the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the bicameral Diet (Parliament) set off a series of events that has shortened the tenures of both Mr. Abe and Mr. Fukuda.

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