Liberal Democrats Get Only Leftovers as New Prime Minister Fills Japan Posts

New Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa finished distributing plum government and parliamentary jobs Thursday, virtually shutting out the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party from its traditional power bases.

The eight-member coalition gave the scandal-tainted LDP only 10 of the 29 chairmanships of standing and extraordinary committees in the important lower house of Parliament, coalition officials said.

The party was given only the chairs of minor committees, such as environment and science and technology, the sorts of posts the LDP had given to opposition parties in its 38 years in power.

Hosokawa’s government also named 23 parliamentary deputy ministers from the coalition’s eight groups. Their job is to assist Cabinet ministers in political matters.

Political commentators have long complained that the LDP used such posts to perpetuate its pork-barrel politics and maintain its cozy relationship with business interests.

Hosokawa has vowed to clean up the political funding system and push through electoral reforms by the end of this year.

Officials of the Socialist Party, the biggest in the coalition, said LDP delegates had objected to what they called the lopsided distribution of committee chairs.

But the Liberal Democrats backed down when the coalition threatened to put the matter to a vote in a plenary session--a step that would virtually guarantee the ruling coalition all committee posts.