Watanabe to Seek Premier’s Post in Japan : Politics: Faction leader will leave former ruling party, form new group for partnership in coalition.

Underscoring a continuing disintegration of Japan’s once all-powerful Liberal Democratic Party, the leader of the party’s third-largest faction said Sunday he will bolt the party to pursue the post of prime minister.

Former Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe, 70, said he and his followers will establish a new party today to seek a partnership with parties in the ruling coalition.

“It has long been my belief that parties with the largest common denominator (of the same policies) should come together and overcome the difficult situation Japan faces,” he told reporters outside his office Sunday.

“Naturally, I will give up my party membership,” he added.

Yohei Kono, the LDP president, said last week that he would represent the party in running for prime minister.

Ever since outgoing Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa announced his intention to resign April 8, Watanabe had been hinting that he would accept an invitation by two conservative-leaning parties in the coalition--Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata’s Renewal Party and the Buddhist-backed Clean Government Party--to join in forming a new government.

But he did not make it clear until Sunday that he would accede to their demand that he leave the Liberal Democratic Party, which lost its 38-year grip on power last summer.

Watanabe’s decision immediately clouded the process of picking a new prime minister. Just a day before, the coalition had started hammering out an agreement on major policies on the unspoken premise that Hata would be chosen to head the new government.

Whether the coalition conservatives will now agree to drop Hata and choose Watanabe hinged mainly on how many LDP members join Watanabe’s rebellion--and how few liberals leave the coalition.

Koji Kakizawa, a Watanabe lieutenant, said 20 of the 45 lower-house members of Watanabe’s faction had pledged to bolt the former ruling party with him. Including other LDP lawmakers, the rebellion could expand to 30, he said.

Shortly after Kakizawa spoke, five non-Watanabe faction members announced that they will join the Watanabe revolt.

Earlier, analysts said Watanabe would have to spur a walkout of at least 80 Liberal Democrats to make up for an expected rebellion in the governing coalition against him. The coalition of seven parties in the lower house now holds only a slim five-seat majority.

This morning, Watanabe reiterated his intention to leave his party, but he had not yet submitted his resignation. He was to meet Kono this afternoon.

By midday, six LDP members had formally resigned from the party.

Wataru Kubo, the Socialists’ secretary general, declared that “it is 100% certain that the coalition cannot unite behind Watanabe.” The New Party Harbinger and the middle-of-the-road Democratic Socialist Party also reacted negatively, while Hosokawa’s Japan New Party was reportedly divided.

Although widely known as an opponent of political reforms that were enacted March 4, Watanabe favors stern measures against North Korea’s suspected development of nuclear weapons and a future increase in a controversial consumption tax to pay for an immediate three-year reduction in income taxes.

The Socialists, the largest coalition party, have dragged their feet on both issues.