Japan Opposition Leader Offers To Resign

Kyodo said Democratic Party executives were trying to persuade Ichiro Ozawa not step down from the top party post.

Japan's main opposition leader decided to resign on Sunday over the political turmoil sparked after his party rejected an offer from the prime minister to join a new coalition and end a policy deadlock.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Friday that he had suggested a new political framework to Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa to resolve a policy stalemate created when the ruling camp lost a July upper house election.

But the invitation was quickly rejected by Democratic Party executives, raising the spectre of more political chaos.

"I have decided to resign to take responsibility, to people inside and outside the party, for the political confusion caused by the prime minister's proposal to form a new coalition," he told a new conference.

Democratic Party Secretary-General Yukio Hatoyama told reporters later he would try to persuade Ozawa to stay on and that party executives would meet to discuss the matter on Monday, but analysts said that response was probably a public show aimed at limiting the damage to Japan's second biggest political party.

Ozawa strongly denied media reports that in fact he had taken the initiative in proposing a grand coalition, but acknowledged he had failed to win party support for a proposal to enter policy talks with the ruling parties.

"It was the equivalent of a vote of no confidence from the executives whom I appointed," he said.

Asked if he would leave the party, Ozawa said he had not said so, and wanted to think carefully about his future.

The Democratic Party and smaller allies won a majority in the upper house in the July poll, allowing them to delay legislation.

DEMOCRATS IN DANGER

Fukuda's month-old government has been unable to enact a single bill.

Topping the list of bills he wants to enact is one to enable Japan's navy to resume a refueling mission in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, activities close ally Washington says are vital to its fight against terrorism.

Tokyo recalled its ships on Thursday when a law enabling the mission expired. Ozawa had said the mission lacked a U.N. mandate and violated Japan's pacifist constitution, and the Democrats and their opposition allies have vowed to vote against the new bill.

Analysts said that if Ozawa left the Democratic Party and took supporters with him, it could prompt the party to unravel.

The Democrats are an often fractious amalgam of former LDP members, ex-Socialists and hawkish younger lawmakers who differ on security matters and other important policies.

Despite early views that Fukuda's image had been damaged by his courtship of the Democrats, analysts said Ozawa's decision to resign clearly signalled rough times ahead for the opposition.

Chuo University political science professor Steven Reed said the Democrats might still be able to salvage their image. "It could go either way. The problem is how the transition (to a new leader) is handled and whether they maintain unity," he said.

Others said the best the Democratic Party could hope for was damage control.

"Ozawa made a big mistake in his judgement," said Yasunori Sone, a political science professor at Keio University. "Now the Democrats are trying to limit the damage as much as possible."

Ozawa, a veteran strategist who bolted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 1993 and helped briefly oust it from power, could well see his influence on the political scene wane.

"It looks very much like this is the end of Ozawa," Chuo University's Reed said of the politician who has been a key figure for decades.

The 65-year-old lawmaker has a reputation as an autocrat and backroom dealer, and the tete-a-tetes with Fukuda -- the pair met twice last week -- hardly dispelled that image.

The talk of joining hands with the ruling camp seemed to contradict his long-espoused goal of creating a viable alternative to the LDP, especially when many thought the Democrats had their best chance ever of taking power in the next general election. Ozawa begged to differ.

"I decided that the best way to open the path to taking power was to implement the pledges we made in the upper house election show results and win the people's understanding," he said.