Mourners pay respect to Japan's former leader

Mourners pay respect to Japan's former leader

TOKYO (Agencies): As mourners paid their respects on Monday to Japan's former prime minister Keizo Obuchi, speculation mounted on the impact his death will have on imminent general elections.

U.S. President Bill Clinton led worldwide condolences for the unassuming leader, who died aged 62 in hospital on Sunday, six weeks after suffering a massive stroke and falling into a coma while still in office.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Monday spoke fondly of the late prime minister describing him as an elder brother.

Abdurrahman said he was willing to attend Obuchi's funeral but decided to put off the plan after speaking to Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Takao Kawakami.

"I just got an explanation from the Japanese ambassador that there is no official state funeral ceremony, therefore it is not common for a head of state to attend," Abdurrahman said in Jakarta.

Abdurrahman said he would either send acting Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Lt. Gen. (ret) Surjadi Soedirdja or Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab.

Hundreds of people entered the garden of Obuchi's home in the northern Tokyo district of Kita, and peered into a room where his body lay with a white handkerchief over the face.

His widow Chizuko sat nearby in the darkened room, which was decorated with white lilies donated by sympathizers and chains of folded paper cranes, believed to bring peace.

But political pundits were already gauging the impact of his death on the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in elections, which Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is expected to call for June 25.

"His death will attract sympathy votes," said Sofia University politics professor Kuniko Inoguhi.

"As his funeral will raise more sympathy, the LDP must be hoping to enter the election as quickly as possible," she added. Obuchi's body was later driven in a black hearse to the Aoyama Cemetery in central Tokyo.

More than 1,000 people queued in driving rain to take turns to enter the Aoyama Funeral Hall and pay their respects by leaving flowers.

Inside, about 100 people packed the small building.

A color photograph of Obuchi stood on a simple stage, adorned with white orchids -- including a bouquet given by Emperor Akihito -- and just two candles.

Obuchi's widow, grieving son and two daughters stood along with his brother and senior LDP officials near the stage. His youngest daughter, 26-year-old Yuko, could be heard weeping in the silent hall. A private cremation is to be held Tuesday.

A public service organized by the LDP and government ministers, and attended by world dignitaries, is to be held on June 8, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki.

"Japan has lost a strong and vibrant leader," US President Bill Clinton said in a statement. "The United States has lost one of our closest friends."

Japan's press and foreign leaders said Obuchi had set the world's second biggest economy on the path to recovery and helped Asia out of its devastating financial crisis.

Obuchi's huge spending packages, aimed at propping up the Japanese economy proved he was not the "dull ox" he claimed to be, the normally unsympathetic Asahi Shimbun said.

"He had been mediocre and had showed no ambition at all," the liberal newspaper said in an editorial. "Calling himself a 'dull ox,' he climbed up the ladder of power step by step.

"But after taking power in July 1998 with a mission to revive the economy and stabilize the financial system, he completely changed his dull ox image," it said.

The former prime minister, replaced on April 5 by party colleague Mori, also rammed through financial reform legislation to revamp the troubled banking system.

When Obuchi took office, "Japan was on the brink of an economic crisis serious enough to make countries around the world worry that it might trigger a worldwide recession," the Yomiuri Shimbun said in an editorial.

Members of the long-ruling LDP were already plotting to make the next general election "a battle to avenge Obuchi's death," the Yomiuri Shimbun added.

But any sympathy vote would be limited given the length of time that will have passed since his stroke, it quoted the ruling and opposition camps as saying.