Japan soon to get new prime minister

By Jerome Rivet

TOKYO (AFP): Japan will get a new prime minister in a few days against a background of deep public mistrust towards the political parties, as reflected in the recent electoral victories of independent candidates, analysts say.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has only once briefly loosened its grip on power in almost half a century, finds itself struggling ahead of Tuesday's election to choose its next leader who will also become prime minister.

Japan's all-purpose political party, in which nationalists and liberals co-exist, has suffered a series of spectacular defeats in regional elections in areas once considered LDP strongholds.

Voters in Nagano, Chiba and Akita prefectures have snubbed the LDP's candidates and opted instead to install as their governors independents who campaigned against cronyism and the status quo.

The LDP's current low standing reflects public exasperation with leaders: A recent opinion poll by the Dentsu Institute for Human Studies found that only 3.5 percent of those questioned trusted their politicians and parties.

"At the moment, no single politician can offer us a vision of the future, or tell us which direction Japan should be taking," said celebrated novelist, Ryu Murakami.

"We are left in the dark while everyone knows that this country needs fundamental change," added the author of several novels dealing with crises in Japanese society.

The disillusionment is no less strident among the public at large.

"Since the start of the economic crisis 10 years ago, we have seen almost 10 prime ministers come and go, and had several very expensive stimulus packages. But where is the recovery they are always promising us?" said Akiko, a 31-year-old office worker from Tokyo who declined to give her full name.

The reason none of this has so far resulted in any change is because confidence in the fragmented opposition as a viable alternative is even lower.

The main opposition force, the Democratic Party of Japan, is barely rated as a credible party of government, with just nine percent of voters backing it, compared to 22 percent supporting the LDP, according to a poll by the Asahi Shimbun liberal daily.

By contrast, 60 percent of respondents said they did not support any party.

Independents, who give the impression of being straight talkers and are highly critical of their party are the public's favorites for the job of premier: They include Junichiro Koizumi, one of the four contenders in Tuesday's election, followed by Makiko Tanaka.

Koizumi has promised to be a "a determined leader," who will not shrink from grasping the painful nettle of fundamental reforms.

Tanaka, the redoubtable daughter of a former prime minister, is outspoken in her criticism of the LDP's "top-down" system which she says is already in "meltdown," and rails against the vacuousness of their ideas.

Tanaka's critics claim her outspokenness is mere pandering to populism and a stratagem to hide her own lack of concrete policies.

"Politicians today are concerned only with serving the interests of themselves or their faction," said Shintaro Ishihara, who was elected governor of Tokyo as an independent in 1999.

The avowed nationalist author is now the subject of constant speculation over whether he is planning to exploit the LDP's weakness to form a new conservative party and wrest power from it.

Yasuo Tanaka (no relation), another celebrated former novelist and the new governor of Nagano prefecture, is trying to change the image of politicians by other means.

He has set up his office in the lobby of the regional authority's offices with glass walls and an open door in a bid to promote "total transparency."