Japan ruling party set to pick new leader

August 29, 2011 — TOKYO (AP) — Japan's ruling party was set to pick a new leader Monday to become the country's sixth prime minister in five years.

Five candidates are running to replace Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is resigning after 15 months amid public criticism over his administration's handling of the tsunami disaster and ensuing nuclear crisis as well as disgust with political infighting.

The vote among 398 parliamentary members of the Democratic Party of Japan looked to be a face-off between former top diplomat Seiji Maehara — favored by the public — and Economy Minister Banri Kaieda, who has the backing of a powerful but scandal-tainted party kingpin, Ichiro Ozawa.

The vote will probably go to a run-off as no one is likely to win the 200 votes needed in the first round. The winner is almost certain to become the nation's next prime minister because the DPJ controls the more powerful lower house of Parliament.

Other candidates include Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano and former Transport Minister Sumio Mabuchi. The new leader faces a host of daunting challenges, from the massive reconstruction after the March 11 tsunami and a surging yen to a ballooning national debt and resolving a nuclear crisis that has dislocated 100,000 people.

Also, he must contend with a divided parliament, which could be a recipe for gridlock. The opposition won control of the upper house last summer. Few striking differences among the five candidates emerged during a weekend debate and joint news conference, which were heavy on rhetoric but scant on concrete proposals. All of them promised to revive Japan's sluggish economy and more government support for the reconstruction effort, while agreeing that it was premature to raise the 5 percent sales tax.

In one contrast, Maehara, a former foreign minister, proposed a halt to the building of new nuclear reactors and a phase-out of atomic power over 40 years. Kaieda, whose minister is in charge of promoting nuclear energy, said he planned to decommission aging nuclear plants found to have problems during stress tests, but did not detail his vision for the future of atomic energy.

Maehara and Noda also suggested they might seek a grand coalition, perhaps on limited basis, with key opposition parties, an approach Kaieda rejected. The leadership vote could turn out to be mainly a reflection of the DPJ's factional power struggles, further turning off the Japanese public to politics.

The telegenic Maehara, a 49-year-old defense expert and China hawk, was the front-runner until Kaieda won Ozawa's support. Ozawa, 69, who is known for savvily engineering elections, is embroiled in a political funding scandal, but his presence has still hung like a shadow over the party leadership campaign.

Kaieda, a 62-year-old former television commentator on economic matters, was key in efforts to bring the nuclear crisis under control and to lead a safety inspection of nuclear plants. He has shown he can be tough, firing three officials in charge of nuclear safety, a move that could help appease the outrage among voters about regulators' cozy ties with the industry.

Maehara has technically violated election laws by unknowingly accepting donations from a foreigner — a problem that could bring him down if the opposition decides to pursue that in parliament. He stepped down as foreign minister earlier this year over that scandal, but has defended his decision to run, saying he did nothing wrong.

Legislators, therefore, may decide to support other candidates, such as the fiscally conservative Noda, some experts say.