Ruling Coalition in Japan Ousts Partner

Japan’s ruling coalition ejected a junior partner Saturday in a move that still leaves Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi firmly in control.

“We couldn’t agree on a common future vision for governing, so it became clear it was impossible to continue in the tripartite coalition,” the Kyodo News agency quoted Obuchi as saying.

Obuchi’s Liberal Democratic Party notified the Liberal Party that their partnership is over, Kyodo reported, quoting the chief Cabinet spokesman, Mikio Aoki.

The dominant LDP and the New Komeito, a party affiliated with Japan’s largest lay Buddhist organization, will govern alone. An election in the lower house of parliament must be held by October.

Relations between the Liberal Party and the LDP were rocky from the start of their alliance in October, with Liberal chief Ichiro Ozawa often threatening to walk out over policy issues.

“There were issues that the Liberal Party could not support,” Ozawa told a news conference Saturday, listing differences in education, social welfare and local development policy.

The party is due to hold a meeting Monday, and some of its members of parliament are expected to form their own splinter party that will stay with the coalition.

Transport Minister Toshihiro Nikai, who is helping to supervise relief for the Mount Usu volcanic eruption, said he will quit the Liberal Party and stay in the coalition, Kyodo reported.

In January, in a display of disharmony unusual in Japanese politics, the coalition forced passage of a bill that reduces the number of proportionately chosen seats in the lower house--at the insistence of the Liberals and over the objections of the New Komeito and opposition parties.

Ozawa is likely to continue pushing Obuchi by demanding, for example, reform of a police force mired in scandals involving drugs, sexual misconduct and hazing, said Shigenori Okazaki, a political analyst at the investment banking firm of Warburg Dillon Read in Tokyo.