TOKYO – The choice of a scandal-tainted former leader of Japan’s new ruling party for a key role raised concerns yesterday that incoming prime minister Yukio Hatoyama had created a rival power centre that would muddle policymaking.
Veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa will assume the post of secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), just months after a fundraising furore forced him to resign.
Ozawa was the DPJs chief campaign strategist and helped mastermind its historic defeat of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in an election for parliaments lower house last Sunday.
Since Ozawa can take much of the credit for the victory, this will boost his clout within the party anyway, but his appointment to the number two position makes it all the more likely that he will try to pull strings from behind the scenes, as he did the only other time the LDP was ousted.
“The question is to what extent Ozawa can restrain himself,” said Tomoaki Iwai, a professor at Nihon University in Tokyo.
“There may be times when he can’t and speaks out on policies at news conferences or tries to decide things without going through the proper decision-making process. Katsuya Okada, the current secretary-general, dismissed concerns about a dual party structure.
“The party leader and Mr Ozawa agreed that policy-making would be unified and that the secretary-general would not interfere,” he said in an interview on Friday.
Parliament will formally vote Mr Hatoyama in as premier on September 16th. He has said he will announce his cabinet shortly after that, emphasising that he will choose its members himself.
Mr Ozawa (67) stepped down as party leader in May after his close aide was charged with accepting illegal donations. The scandal is likely to come back into focus when the aide’s trial gets under way in the coming months. – (Reuters)