Hosokawa quits,alliance chiefs try to calm jitters
Hosokawa quits,alliance chiefs try to calm jitters
TOKYO (Reuter): Shell-shocked leaders of Japan's ruling coalition tried yesterday to calm jitters about the future following Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa's sudden resignation, insisting the alliance would remain united.
Hosokawa, who took office last August pledging to stamp out corruption in public life, was himself felled by allegations of financial impropriety.
He ended days of speculation yesterday by announcing he had decided to quit to take responsibility for failing to clear up doubts over his financial dealings, and for provoking a four-week opposition boycott of parliamentary business.
The self-proclaimed "Mr Clean" said there was nothing wrong with two loans he accepted during the 1980s, but acknowledged that new irregularities had just come to light.
"I have discovered that there were legal problems with the way a person, an old friend of mine, was investing my personal funds for a few years from 1981," Hosokawa went on.
"I have decided that I must clarify my responsibility as a reformist leader."
True to his aloof style, he gave no prior warning to his coalition partners, who were struck dumb for 10 minutes after he hit them with his bombshell at yesterday's midday meeting.
"I consulted my wife last night but no one else," Hosokawa said later in announcing his departure to the nation.
Coalition leaders went into damage-control mode yesterday night, holding the first of what promises to be a series of acrimonious meetings to try to choose a successor.
They broke up after two hours agreeing to reconvene on Saturday. The process looked likely to drag on into next week.
Fear
Word that Hosokawa was to quit raised fears that the fractious eight-way alliance would be pushed towards a break-up over the choice of a new front man, after going to the brink three times since December over deep policy differences.
"They need time because there are two opposing camps, one backing Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata for the leadership and the other behind chief-of-staff Masayoshi Takemura," said columnist Minoru Morita.
"I think Hata has a good chance," he said. "If that doesn't work out, Hata's backroom patron Ichiro Ozawa may decide to dissolve the coalition and create a new grouping to include members of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)."
Leaders of coalition parties ranging from conservative to hard-left moved swiftly to quash talk of a rift.
"We're meeting to agree on the formation of a new cabinet and a successor (to Hosokawa)," said Tomoichi Murayama, leader of the Socialist Party, the largest in the alliance.
"We (the Socialists) aren't going to be inflexible over picking a new leader," he told a news conference. "If we do that, we risk falling out."
Kozo Watanabe, a senior member of the influential Shinseito (Japan Renewal Party), denied reports his party wanted the coalition dissolved so as to bring in Michio Watanabe, a prominent politician of the once-dominant LDP.
"We need a strong government to continue with all the tasks facing us on the domestic and international fronts and that will be our main preoccupation," Kozo Watanabe said.
"It's only natural that (the coalition) is going to stay together and work together," he told a television reporter.
Although Shinseito is strongly pushing his candidacy, Foreign Minister Hata, who is also deputy premier, told reporters that he would prefer to give priority to maintaining coalition harmony rather than seeking the leadership.
Hosokawa's resignation prompted a quick reaction from U.S. President Bill Clinton, who said he was sorry to hear the news but looked forward to working with his successor.
The two leaders had been at loggerheads since a failed trade summit in February, prompted by Hosokawa's refusal to accept U.S. demands for specific market-opening targets.