Miyazawa Government Falls, Forcing Election : Japan: Premier loses no-confidence vote as 55 lawmakers desert to help opposition. Result could be end of one-party rule.

Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa lost a vote of no-confidence Friday, forcing him to call a general election that could end 38 years of one-party rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Fifty-five rebel members of Miyazawa’s conservative party cooperated with the opposition, either casting ballots against him, abstaining or boycotting the vote. Even though the Liberal Democrats have the majority in the lower house of Parliament with 274 seats, the motion passed 255 to 220.

The loss, brought on by his failure to tackle political corruption, was a stunning setback for Miyazawa personally that also threatens to deprive his party of a majority in the powerful lower house in the election expected to be held July 18.

Both ruling and opposition party leaders described the defeat as signaling the end of one-party rule in Japan, as well as a forceful demonstration of public support for political reform in the wake of repeated corruption scandals over the last five years.

The chairman of the largest opposition party, Socialist Sadao Yamahana, said the coming election would be “a test of one-party rule” in Japan.

With Miyazawa’s grasp on the prime ministership now endangered, his ability to work out a framework for U.S.-Japan trade negotiations with President Clinton, and his leadership in hosting an economic summit with Clinton and five other leaders of industrial democracies here July 7-9 also have been thrown into question.

Miyazawa listened with an unchanging, sullen expression as opposition leaders branded him a “liar” for breaking his repeated promises to compromise with them to enact sweeping political reform in this session of Parliament. On Wednesday, Liberal Democratic elders had rejected any compromise approach and Miyazawa wound up offering no counterproposal to concessions that the opposition offered.

Cheers resounded each time one of the Liberal Democratic rebels cast a ballot against him. Representatives dropped unpainted blocks of wood--meaning yes on the no-confidence motion--or green blocks--signifying a no vote--into separate transparent ballot boxes that could be seen from the floor and on television.

The outcome was visible even before it was announced, precipitating an explosion of shouts and applause.

Two Liberal Democrats were absent because of illness, but three unaffiliated representatives opposed the motion, adding a net one vote to the Liberal Democrats’ total.

Miyazawa rose, bowed and left to convene his Cabinet to approve the dissolution of the lower house. Two rebel Cabinet ministers resigned just before the vote to avoid signing the dissolution document, and Miyazawa appointed himself to fill their posts temporarily.

Barely an hour later, 11 ruling party rebels resigned from the party and 35 others, led by Tsutomu Hata, a former finance minister, and Ichiro Ozawa, a former party secretary general, appeared certain to leave the party or be punished by it.

Hata and Ozawa had led the rebellion against Miyazawa, condemning him for failing to exercise leadership.

Koichi Kato, the party’s deputy secretary general, said the Hata-Ozawa rebels would have to be punished by, at least, denying them endorsement as party candidates. Secretary General Seiroku Kajiyama suggested that all 35 voluntarily resign but did not rule out expulsion.

Hata said the faction would consult later on whether to leave the party.

Loss of a majority in the July election would virtually assure the end of Miyazawa’s rule. Even if his own party stands behind him, any of the opposition groups whose support would be needed for a full-fledged coalition government would be forced to reject him after having expressed their lack of confidence in his premiership Friday.

A realignment of political parties, creating an entirely new political map for Japan and a non-Liberal Democrat coalition, also emerged as a possibility.

“A completely new political structure could come out of the election,” Kato said. “Losing the 35 Hata followers, in essence, already has reduced the party to less than half of the seats in the lower house. It is entirely possible that the party will fail to win a majority. We cannot foresee what kind of politics will emerge.”

“This is the beginning of a new politics in Japan,” declared Koshiro Ishida, chairman of the Buddhist-backed Komei (Clean Government) Party.

Keigo Ouchi, head of the Democratic Socialist Party, called passage of the no-confidence motion “the beginning of amalgamation of forces to replace the Liberal Democratic Party.”

In a late evening news conference televised by the national broadcasting network NHK as part of more than five hours of continuous live coverage, a more relaxed-looking Miyazawa denied that he had lied in promising reforms but not carrying them out.

“I intended to carry out reforms. I wanted to carry them out. But in the end, I failed,” he said. “The problem was that each representative looked at the proposals for reform of the election system in terms of his own constituency.”

Apparently intent on remaining in office, the prime minister said he intends to raise the reform issue anew. But he indicated that he might focus only on reforms dealing with prevention of corruption and control of political funds, dropping the controversial issue of the electoral system.

In their original proposals, the Liberal Democrats urged that Japan’s multi-seat legislative districts be replaced with single-member constituencies, a plan that analysts said could give the ruling party control of 80% or more of the lower house.

Opposition parties urged a combination of single-seat districts with another bloc of representatives chosen through proportional representation based upon the percentage of votes each party receives.

In May, the opposition offered a compromise designed to assuage some of the ruling party worries, but the Liberal Democrats failed to respond.

Miyazawa insisted that “Japan’s democracy operating in the midst of the summit” would not affect his ability to preside over the meeting that will be attended by Clinton and the leaders of Canada, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin also will come to Japan to meet the seven leaders after their summit.

But Miyazawa acknowledged that the July election will “be a problem” for his party.

In the last lower-house election in February, 1990, the Liberal Democrats bounced back from their first-ever defeat in the upper house seven months earlier to win 290 seats in the lower chamber, the 512-member house that chooses the prime minister. Resignations and deaths had reduced their numbers to 274--a majority of 18 in a full house--before Friday’s no-confidence motion.

Now, however, public disgust with politics has risen to new heights, as Miyazawa acknowledged during the three-month debate on political reform. Capping the uproar was the revelation in March that Shin Kanemaru, a former political kingmaker who put Miyazawa in office, had amassed a private fortune of nearly $60 million, much of it illicit contributions from construction firms that used his clout to win public works contracts.

In addition, the emergence of the Japan New Party, a new conservative group that has benefited from voter disaffection with the established parties, has added a new element. Its leader, Morihiro Hosokawa, a former governor, said it hopes to field more than 60 candidates.