WORLD : Factions Reject Nominee to Lead Beleaguered Japanese Ruling Party

Faction leaders in Japan’s ruling party have rejected the nomination of the party’s emerging young leader, Secretary General Ryutaro Hashimoto, to replace Prime Minister Sosuke Uno, party officials said today.

Political analysts said Hashimoto was dumped because he was too independent and too strong a personality for Liberal Democratic Party elders, who like to maintain influence over the party leader.

Premier Uno said last week that he is quitting in order to take responsibility for the LDP’s rout in July 23 elections. He is considered a political liability because of allegations that he paid a geisha for sex.

Hashimoto, 52, had been seen as capable and relatively untouched by the recent Recruit shares-for-favors scandal in which most of the LDP’s leaders were implicated.

Party officials said the new LDP leader will be chosen Aug. 8 and formally named premier at an extraordinary session of Parliament on Aug. 10.

Hashimoto was the main campaigner for the LDP in the election for the upper house and was widely named as the front-runner last week, even receiving an endorsement from a rival faction leader, former Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.