Japanese ruling party strategist Ichiro Ozawa was charged today over a funding scandal, a widely expected judicial move that could widen a rift over whether he should leave the party.
Mr Ozawa, a seasoned political figure who once headed the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), faced mandatory indictment over suspected misreporting by his political funds body after a lay judicial panel decided last year that he must be charged. The 68-year-old has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Ozawa's prosecution could widen a split in the DPJ and further distract Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his government from making decisions on deep-seated policy problems as it seeks ways to pass bills in a divided parliament and bolster a weak economy.
Mr Ozawa's indictment will give fresh ammunition to opposition parties who control parliament's upper house and are refusing to join multiparty talks on tax reform to curb Japan's huge debt.
They are instead trying to force Mr Kan to either resign or call a snap election for the powerful lower chamber. "We want him to explain in his own words. We want him to testify in parliament," Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary-general of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), told reporters.
The scandal has helped drag down voter support for the government to about 30 per cent and caused a split in the DPJ over Mr Ozawa's fate, after Mr Kan hinted that he should leave the DPJ and even resign his seat in parliament once he was indicted.
Mr Kan and DPJ executives will now have to decide how to respond to Mr Ozawa's indictment, including whether to try to issue a warning that he should leave the party.
"It is very regrettable that a lawmaker who belongs to the party, and especially one who headed the party as well as served as secretary-general, has been indicted," said Katsuya Okada, the DPJ's secretary-general.
Mr Okada said the party would discuss how to deal with the matter once Mr Ozawa made a decision on his fate, adding that the DPJ should not take too long to reach a conclusion.
Mr Kan himself refrained from substantive comment, telling the lower house budget committee: "I'm aware of it. But that's a judicial process and I don't know any details. I won't comment any further at the moment."
Attempting to push out Mr Ozawa would further fray party unity just as the government is seeking opposition help to pass laws to implement a record $1 trillion budget for the year from April 1st.
One option to pass the budget bills is to seek votes from tiny former coalition partner the Social Democrats to obtain the two-thirds majority in parliament's powerful lower house needed to override the opposition-controlled upper chamber.
But if Mr Ozawa and some of his backers leave the DPJ, getting the required numbers would be harder.
Mr Ozawa has indicated that he has no intention of leaving the DPJ or resigning his seat in parliament. He left the then-ruling LDP in 1993 with about 40 of its MPs, sparking a chain reaction that briefly pushed the party from power. Analysts say that with his influence waning, it is unclear how many of his backers would follow him into the opposition.