Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso's party makes plans to replace him

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/3511559/Japanese-Prime-Minister-Taro-Asos-party-makes-plans-to-replace-him.html

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is a lame duck barely two months into his administration and his own party is already making open plans to replace him.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Last Updated: 2:20PM GMT 24 Nov 2008

Mr. Aso inherited a declining economy Photo: GETTY Elected head of the Liberal Democratic Party on Sept 22, Mr. Aso inherited a declining economy, increasing distrust of the government and widespread public concern over corruption and apparent incompetence in Japan's halls of power.

Summoned to settle the ship after Yasuo Fukuda's abrupt resignation, Mr. Aso has failed to do so. His plans to rebuild the economy have been ridiculed, he has offended key supporters of the party and announced plans to reverse some of the LDP's most cherished and hard-fought policy platforms.

It has not helped that at the same time, his habit of reading comic books has been mocked and his inability to read relatively straightforward "kanji" characters in prepared speeches leave most Japanese with the impression that the leader of the nation falls well short of being statesman material.


"I would say that up to 70 per cent of my colleagues have reached the conclusion that we will not be able to win the coming election with Mr Aso in charge and that already his power to lead has gone," LDP politician Ichita Yamamoto told The Daily Telegraph on Monday.

"A lot of people in the party have already started to talk about the situation post-Aso," he added.

The early names put forward for his possible successor include Yoshimi Watanabe, the former minister of financial services, Nobuteru Ishihara, who is best known for being the son of right wing Tokyo Mayor Shintaro Ishihara, and Yuriko Koike, who would become Japan's first ever female prime minister if elected.

As well as disappointing those in the party, Mr. Aso's enduring ability to offend was on display again in the last week as he angered doctors - one of the LDP's staunchest supporters - by saying that many of their numbers "lack common sense".

The same day he told a meeting of parents at private kindergartens that teachers should be disciplining the mothers instead of the pupils.

More significantly, Mr Aso suddenly informed the press on Thursday that he was considering freezing the privatisation of the post office, arguably the single issue that won the 2005 election for the LDP.

Mr Ichita responded angrily that he would not remain silent on an issue that former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi staked so much on. He was joined by others who pointed out that to go back on such a monumental piece of legislation in the space of three years would inevitably raise more red flags with an already sceptical public.

"I'm a realist," said Mr. Yamamoto. "We're stuck between replacing Mr. Aso - and the negative impact that would have among voters just a few months after he was brought in - and keeping him and losing the next election disastrously.

"What will happen? It is impossible to say at the moment, but the advice I am giving my colleagues is that they should be ready for an emergency," he said.