Renewed political leadership vital

TOKYO: The Liberal Democratic Party -- the largest of the three ruling coalition parties -- seems to be lacking a sense of crisis.

The resignation of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has already become certain, and the LDP envisons a scenario to form a new administration in mid-April following election of a new LDP president and the Cabinet's resignation en masse.

Before these steps, an official announcement of Mori's resignation is expected to take place after passage of the fiscal 2001 budget and related legislation.

As the nation's economy is facing a serious situation, including the possibility of a deflationary crisis, a political vacuum should not be allowed. The nation does not have the luxury of spending more than one month until the new administration is created.

In fact, the Nikkei average of the Tokyo Stock Exchange has recorded a postbubble low and is close to going below the 12,000 yen line. To avert an economic crisis and protect the public's lives, the nation's politicians must decisively take every possible action.

The Mori Cabinet should resign en masse immediately, and a new prime minister with strong leadership skills must be selected. Under the new prime minister, talented people should be utilized to create a cabinet that has the ability to make policy decisions and to execute policies in order to overcome the economic crisis.

The LDP must recognize its responsibility as the largest ruling party, and should establish a new administration as soon as possible in cooperation with its coalition partners, New Komeito and Hoshuto (New Conservative Party).

Since its establishment, the leadership of Mori Cabinet has been called into question, with many pointing out it lacked ability to execute policies. Now that Mori has made a de facto resignation announcement, his Cabinet has further lost strength, and we cannot expect decisiveness and ability to actively carry out policies from the current administration at a time of crisis.

For the time being, a package of economic measures compiled by the coalition parties last week, including steps to stimulate stock prices and increase land transactions, should be carried out quickly. But under the current situation, the Mori Cabinet has no ability to do so.

It also can be described as a crisis that the "lame duck" Cabinet continues to stay in office.

As the opposition camp presses the Cabinet to resign en masse, Diet deliberations on the fiscal 2001 budget have lost momentum with a lack of debate on policies. Furthermore, Mori is scheduled to have two sets of summit talks -- one with U.S. President George W. Bush and the other with Russian President Vladimir Putin -- but no fruitful results can be expected from the outgoing prime minister.

The recent efforts within the LDP to bring Mori down were mainly promoted for the stated reason that "We cannot fight the House of Councillors election under Mori."

But this is only an internal problem of the LDP. Most Japanese strongly hope that Mori will step down and a new strong political leadership will be established.

The people must be feeling that they do not want to go down with the Mori administration at a time that the economy is facing problems of critical proportions, and such anti-Mori sentiment is reflected in a recent opinion poll that showed the approval rate for the Mori Cabinet at less than 10 percent.

Now that the nation's economy -- the very foundation of the nation's survival -- is on the brink of collapse, the most urgent task is obvious.

It is the LDP's immediate job, as a responsible political party, to establish a renewed political leadership.

-- The Yomiuri Shimbun