Watanabe’s Bid to Lead Japan Fizzles : Politics: Former foreign minister says proposed candidacy ‘has become difficult.’ Meanwhile, ruling coalition paves way for choice of Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata.

A bid by opposition Liberal Democratic bigwig Michio Watanabe to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa fizzled Monday, while Japan’s eight-party coalition narrowed its differences on policies to be implemented by a new prime minister from its own ranks.

In a meeting this morning, deputies of the coalition parties agreed to commit themselves to a pledge to “obey” any U.N. sanctions that may be ordered against North Korea for its refusal to permit international inspections of its nuclear facilities. Any action Japan would take, moreover, would be carried out within the limits of its war-renouncing constitution, they agreed.

Ichiro Ozawa, deputy leader of Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata’s Renewal Party and chief coalition strategist, initially proposed a revision of the Self Defense Forces law to permit Japan’s military to provide fuel and supplies to U.S. forces in case of a U.N.-ordered blockade of North Korea. But Wataru Kubo, the Socialists’ secretary general, opposed any military cooperation with the United States or South Korea.

The deputies agreed to meet again later today in an attempt to settle the final dispute over whether to raise a 3% consumption tax to finance three years of income tax cuts. Socialists, who opposed implementaion of the consumption tax in 1989, reject any increase in its rate.

Without an increase in indirect taxes, the Finance Ministry has declared it will not approve income tax cuts continuing beyond this year; the cuts, many here hope, would restore economic growth and pull in imports, as the Clinton Administration has been urging.

Once the deputies complete a new coalition platform, coalition party chiefs are expected to approve it quickly and immediately make their choice for a new prime minister. Although no official proposal for the next leader has yet been made, the policy talks proceeded on the premise that Hata will be given the post.

If agreement is reached this afternoon, Hata is expected to be elected prime minister Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Watanabe, 70, a former foreign minister, reneged on his Sunday declaration that he would leave the Liberal Democratic Party, establish a new party and seek the coalition’s backing as prime minister Monday. “I want to watch developments a little more,” he told reporters outside his office in the evening after support for him failed to materialize.

Admitting that running as the coalition’s candidate for prime minister “has become difficult,” Watanabe said he will make his final decision today.

On Monday, six more Liberal Democrats bolted the party that had run the government for 38 years until last summer, bringing to 11 the number of defectors since Hosokawa announced that he would resign.

Watanabe, however, was not among them.

“If he had made his intention clear a little earlier, Watanabe could have gained more supporters,” Hata said.