3 Japanese Contenders for Prime Minister Will Try to Agree on 1

The three contenders to succeed Yasuhiro Nakasone as Japanese prime minister said Thursday they will try to agree among themselves who the choice should be rather than put the issue to a party vote Oct. 20.

At a joint news conference after formally declaring their candidacies, they said they would hold talks on the issue, perhaps starting this weekend, and that Nakasone or other party leaders might be called in to mediate if they fail to agree.

Contender Kiichi Miyazawa, 68, Japan’s finance minister, told the press conference: “I think it will be better to choose a . . . leader through talks, rather than by an election, for the harmony of the party.”

His rivals for the office are Noboru Takeshita, 63, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Shintaro Abe, 63, chairman of the party’s executive council and a former foreign minister.

The ruling party announced that the vote among the party’s 445 members of Parliament, originally set for Oct. 30, will be held Oct. 20 after a fourth contender bowed out of the race Tuesday. Nakasone’s successor will be appointed formally at a party convention Oct. 31.

Nakasone, 69, whose term ends Oct. 30, is not seeking reelection. His five-year tenure transformed Japanese politics, bringing a more visible, dramatic style to a nation long known for faceless politicians.

Whoever succeeds him as president of the Liberal Democratic Party is assured of becoming prime minister because of the party’s parliamentary majority.

Takeshita heads the largest party faction, with 114 members of Parliament. Miyazawa is second with 89 faction members, while Nakasone’s group has 87 members. Abe’s faction in the party has 86 members and former State Minister Toshio Komoto’s has 31.

The three candidates have almost identical foreign policy positions and have said they will pursue many of the policies forged by Nakasone.

Of himself and his two rivals, Abe recently said: “Basically, we are not different. I don’t think Nakasone’s policies are different from ours. Everybody agrees.”

The three candidates told a news conference Thursday that they want to lead Japan to a larger role in the world community. They reiterated their pledges to continue Nakasone’s policies of transforming the economy into one less dependent on exports, and of maintaining a close security relationship with the United States.

Abe, a former newspaper reporter, has said the United States has lost much of its economic and some of its military power and that Japan should seek independence from the United States on the international stage.

“We have been totally dependent on the United States but we should not continue to do so,” the former foreign minister said recently.

Takeshita, the pre-election favorite because he has the most supporters within the party, is a former junior high school English teacher who says he no longer speaks the language. He said recently that he is more conservative than Nakasone and will be a tough negotiator on trade issues.

Miyazawa, fluent in English, is considered the most engaging of the candidates and the most international-minded. But without the support of Nakasone, he has the slimmest chance of winning.

Nakasone has not yet thrown his support behind a candidate.