Japan elects leader today
TOKYO -- The candidates battling to be the next prime minister of Japan wound down their campaigns Saturday, stumping for rural votes outside Tokyo and then moving to the capital for final appeals for support.
Ruling party elder and political moderate Yasuo Fukuda was the expected winner in today's contest for the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party, a victory certain to clinch him the premiership in a parliamentary vote next week.
Fukuda, 71, who would become the first son of a prime minister to take the job himself, brushed off questions Saturday about his Cabinet lineup on his way to a debate with his opponent, former Foreign Minister Taro Aso.
"I have not made any personnel decision yet -- it's still blank," he said in the city of Sendai, northeast of Tokyo.
Aso, 67, a foreign policy hawk close to outgoing nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accused Fukuda of not revealing enough of his agenda, which has focused on helping rural areas, improving ties with Asia and backing the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
"Today is the last day, I hope he will provide more details of his policies so that we can have a real debate," Aso said in Sendai.
Fukuda has the support of the major factions of the LDP, and newspaper polls show him with a comfortable lead over Aso. A poll in the Asahi newspaper on Saturday forecast he would get 67 percent of national LDP lawmaker votes, with substantial support from local LDP chapters. Asahi did not provide method of the survey or margin or error.
Abe, 53, abruptly announced earlier this month that he would resign after only a year in office and checked into a hospital, where he remained at the weekend. His term has been marked by a series of damaging scandals, including the suicide of a Cabinet member, and he led the LDP to an election disaster in July in which the party lost control of the upper house of parliament.
The winner in the LDP ballot is assured selection as prime minister when parliament convenes next Tuesday because the party controls the powerful lower house.
The LDP, which holds a vast majority in the more powerful lower house, is scrambling to stabilize the government and win back popularity. The party is also eager to win passage of legislation extending the country's naval refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
The resurgent opposition has vowed to defeat the Afghan measure, though Fukuda has said he would work with the opposition and try to convince them to support it.
So far in the campaign, the two candidates have espoused similar positions, with the differences being ones of details and approach.
Aso is the more stridently conservative of the two, pushing a hard-line against North Korea for abducting Japanese citizens, an aggressive stance against the opposition, and a tough position with rising China.
Fukuda, meanwhile, has played himself as more conciliatory, saying he was open to negotiation with North Korea, a cooperative approach with the opposition, and eager to improve ties with China and other Asian nations.