Word: ohira
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Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira provoked this Circus Maximus by taking a gamble--one most observers thought he would win easily. He dissolved Japan's parliament, the Diet, in September, and called for a new election less than a year after his surprise victory in the last party election. Nothing recent conservative gains in local elections, Ohira saw a chance to buttress his own power with a big victory for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which in recent years has lost the Diet majority it had maintained through the last three decades. Ohira stumped for a tax hike to combat...
...when the voting ended, Ohira's gamble had backfired. Instead of a resounding LDP victory, Ohira's party actually lost a seat, bringing its total in the Diet's lower house to 248. (About 271 seats are necessary to control the key committees in the 511-member House of Representatives.) After the crapshoot, opposition parties in concert controlled as many seats...
Former Premier Takeo Miki demanded that Ohira step down as Premier and party leader, and his call was soon echoed by Fukuda, whom Ohira had ousted as Premier last December. But the Bull refused to quit, thus triggering a fierce party struggle. At first, says one L.D.P. Diet member, "we thought that it was like any fight between father and mother. It would get serious, but in the end there would be no divorce." Yet as the days went by, all attempts at compromise proved fruitless...
When the Diet finally reassembled last week, it faced a situation unprecedented in Japan's 33-year postwar parliamentary history: two candidates from the same party, Ohira and Fukuda, vying for the premiership. Elected on the second ballot by a 17-vote margin, Ohira owed his victory to the support of a conservative breakaway party, the New Liberal Club. The win did little to enhance Ohira's stature, either in the Diet or in his own party. Fumed one L.D.P. member: "At first, I didn't think he should resign, but later I decided he should...
...Ohira named a Cabinet that reflected the deep schisms within the party. Though none of the faction chiefs personally accepted positions, Ohira was forced to pass over many of his closest allies in handing out the portfolios; 15 of his 20 ministers are in their first Cabinet jobs. He has also agreed to give some key party positions, including the post of secretary-general, to members of rival factions. Despite these fence-mending efforts, the party's wounds are far from healed. Vowed Fukuda: "The first round is over, but the second has just begun...