Japan Premier Quits; Major Shake-Up Seen

Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama abruptly resigned the nation’s top post today, throwing the political world into uproar amid predictions of another major realignment.

Murayama, who has long indicated his desire to resign, was cornered into the decision by today’s deadline for entering his Socialist Party’s presidential race. After his announcement, his entire Cabinet resigned.

Plagued with low support ratings and conflict within his own party, Murayama, 71, lost his desire to continue as prime minister, said Tomoaki Iwai, a political science professor at Tokiwa University. Murayama and his Cabinet will continue as a caretaker government until a new one is formed at a parliamentary session next Thursday.

In a meeting with the heads of his coalition partners, Murayama said he believes the next prime minister should come from the largest party, the Liberal Democrats, in order to manage what is likely to be a controversial parliamentary session. Among other issues, the ruling government is likely to be fiercely attacked for a huge public bailout of ailing mortgage loan companies.

Most analysts expected that the Socialists, Liberal Democrats and New Party Harbinger will manage to maintain the coalition government and anoint Ryutaro Hashimoto, the international trade minister, as the next prime minister.

Hashimoto, who also serves as LDP president, is best known for his oily pompadour, agile mind and sharp tongue. He won public support by dressing down U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor during auto negotiations last year.

But Hashimoto’s ascension was not formally confirmed in a meeting today among party heads, where Murayama announced his desire to resign.

Should Hashimoto be elected prime minister in next week’s parliamentary session, Japan’s normally moribund politics could take a lively turn. That’s because the leading opposition party, the New Frontier, recently elected Ichiro Ozawa as its president--a man regarded as one of Japan’s most headstrong, visionary and controversial politicians.

A head-to-head matchup between Hashimoto and Ozawa could lead Japan down the path of fierce policy debates--a sharp break from the traditionally oblique political culture given to consensus and compromise. The two party leaders could also move to seize more policymaking power from bureaucrats who have long run the nation.

Ozawa urged the ruling coalition to call an early election to give voters a chance to render their judgment on who should lead Japan. Although the ruling coalition had indicated that it might call an election as early as April, many members are urging that it be delayed until later this year or even next year because of low public support ratings.

“It’s not good to pass around the political leadership among three parties,” Ozawa said. “They should dissolve the Parliament and obtain the judgment of the people.”

Murayama, best known for his amiable mien and enormous shaggy eyebrows, was viewed as a weak prime minister who held the shaky coalition together but failed to revive Japan’s faltering economy or resolve other pressing problems. However, analysts credit him with managing to win national compensation for atomic bomb victims and those suffering from mercury poisoning in the famous Minamata industrial poisoning case--two issues the conservative Liberal Democrats had long refused to act on.

Murayama also delivered strong speeches apologizing for Japan’s wartime deeds during ceremonies last year marking the 50th anniversary of World War II.

But Murayama’s fateful decision to join hands with the party’s erstwhile LDP rivals and become prime minister in June 1994 opened a split among conservative and liberal Socialists that ultimately proved his undoing, analysts said.

Facing possible annihilation in general elections expected this year, the party has deepened its split between conservative “realists” who want to form a new party and formally disavow the principles of the past and liberal “idealists” who want to revert to the party’s pacifist stands.

Murayama himself--apparently no longer able to manage the internal dissension--chose to step down, analysts said.

Tadatoshi Akiba, from the party’s left wing, had expressed interest in running against Murayama for the Socialist presidency.

In a Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper poll Dec. 19, only 31.2% of those surveyed supported the Murayama Cabinet.