Politicking in Japan Almost Kills Main Opposition Party

Japan’s largest opposition party narrowly avoided collapse Wednesday, as ferocious maneuvering convulsed the political world here over who will form the next government.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which won 239 of 500 seats in parliamentary elections Sunday, has still been unable to put together a ruling coalition. But the party is wooing members of almost all opposition parties--setting off sharp debate within them over whether to succumb to the lure of perks and power or remain removed from them to build a strong alternative to the dominant LDP.

The leading opposition New Frontier Party almost cracked when two of its stars--former prime ministers Morihiro Hosokawa and Tsutomu Hata--conveyed to supporters Wednesday their intent to bolt.

They have criticized the party’s president, Ichiro Ozawa, for what they view as his imperious style and flawed political tactics. They cite, for example, an ineffective sit-in at the parliament that party members engaged in for three weeks in March to protest a government proposal to bail out housing loan firms.

But when Hosokawa and Hata visited the party’s biggest supporter--the Soka Gakkai, a controversial Buddhist lay organization--and laid out their plans to leave, they were asked to consider their responsibilities to those who put them in office, said Rie Tsumura, the group’s spokeswoman.

“Your supporters supported the New Frontier Party, and wouldn’t this be a betrayal to them?” Tsumura quoted Soka Gakkai President Einosuke Akiya as asking.

By day’s end, Hosokawa and Hata were denying that they had discussed leaving the party. The group’s leadership formally announced that they will remain, united behind Ozawa and focused on rebuilding the party, which captured 155 seats and has won additional support from five other candidates who ran as independents.

Soka Gakkai is not the only group to question some politicians’ practice of winning elections, then turning around and switching parties or allegiances. Most of the opposition parties are showing more caution about cooperating with the LDP than in the past--in part because of the steep price paid by its previous partners.

The LDP coalition partners--the Social Democrats and New Party Harbinger--suffered major losses in the recent elections, analysts say, because voters believed that they had sold out their principles.

The two parties originally formed part of the 1993 anti-LDP government--the first in almost four decades--but less than a year later abandoned their partners to put the LDP back into power.

Social Democratic leader Takako Doi has announced her doubts about rejoining an LDP coalition.

But she is under pressure to cooperate from the party’s older members--many of whom want to cap their long political careers laboring in the minority with the glory of a ministerial post, political analyst Minoru Morita said.

The party is expected to announce a decision next week on whether it will cooperate with the LDP.

The newly established Democratic Party announced this week that the party was leaning toward not joining the coalition.

Only the New Party Harbinger has announced an immediate readiness to join an LDP coalition. But, having lost seven seats in the elections, it now has only two to offer.