Uno Named Head of Japanese Party as Rebellion Fails

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party overcame an attempted uprising by young rebels today and chose Foreign Minister Sosuke Uno, 66, as its new party president.

Parliament is to elect him as prime minister this afternoon after Noboru Takeshita officially submits his resignation.

Uno pledged to carry out political reform, declared he would resign from the party faction formerly headed by scandal-tainted ex-Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and said he wanted to resolve trade frictions with Washington.

‘Allies Trust Each Other’

In a news conference after the caucus, Uno said he told three U.S. Cabinet secretaries that “Japan and the United States are allies. Allies trust each other in all matters. That is what an alliance is. . . . Raising a club to conduct negotiations is simply not permissible.”

Uno said he made the complaints about Japan being branded “an unfair trading nation” when he met the U.S. officials in Paris earlier this week at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, where he learned that party leaders had chosen him to succeed Takeshita.

The change of the guard--precipitated by an 11-month-long series of revelations of a $7.7-million influence-buying scandal--was marred by six objections from the floor of a party caucus meeting. Each protested the party’s refusal to permit a formal vote.

The young rebels Thursday tried to field Ganri Yamashita, 68, a former Defense Agency director, as a rival to Uno, but the party leaders refused to accept his candidacy. Rules for elections are spelled out for party conventions, but no provisions exist for a vote between rivals in a caucus.

One of the rebels, Katsuhiko Shirakawa, condemned the refusal to allow an election as a rejection of democracy’s most basic principle.

“Could such a thing happen in Japan?” he asked.

Hideo Usui lambasted what he called the party’s “incomprehensible method of operations.”

“If there is no rule to permit a vote at a party caucus, one should be created,” he declared.

Kuro Matsuda criticized the absence of any policy considerations in choosing Uno.

“I haven’t heard a thing about what policies Uno will follow as prime minister. I have never heard Uno say a word about political reform,” he told the gathering, which was televised nationally.

“You choose a leader by a phone call to Paris, asking him, ‘Won’t you become prime minister?’ What the hell is this? The people won’t accept it,” Matsuda said.

With a Stony Face

During the highly unusual outbursts, which the party leadership permitted in place of a vote, Takeshita sat on stage with a stony face, while other party leaders stared at the ceiling or looked down at documents on their laps. Uno sat in the audience, expressionless.

Ryutaro Hashimoto, deputy secretary general, reminded the rebels that he had conducted a series of meetings to which all party members of Parliament had been invited and that two-thirds of them had favored choosing a new leader through discussions, without an election.

The vast majority of the 341 party members of Parliament present showed their approval for Uno by standing.

The uprising, however, ensured the destruction of party unity, which had been a hallmark of Takeshita’s 19 months in office. It also set the stage for demands for Uno’s resignation should he fail to lead the party to victory in a crucial upper house election July 23.

Criticism of Takeshita’s virtually single-handed choice of Uno erupted earlier in meetings Thursday of party factions, the cores of power within the ruling party.

“I have never heard Uno utter a word about political reform,” complained former Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki, 78.

After returning from Paris, Uno paid late-night courtesy calls on both Suzuki and former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, 84, who also had complained bitterly about selecting a Nakasone lieutenant.

Uno is scheduled to form a new Cabinet tonight after his election in Parliament.