Learn mandarin - Fukuda ahead in premier race

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Fukuda ahead in premier race

Updated: 2007-09-15 07:28

The race to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shaped up on
Friday as a fight between 71-year-old lawmaker Yasuo Fukuda, an advocate
of warm ties with Asian neighbors, and hawkish former foreign minister
Taro Aso.

Fukuda emerged as the frontrunner after several ruling Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP) factions threw their support behind him, but the outspoken
Aso vowed to fight to the end.

Japanese media said Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, was backing
Fukuda while a Kyodo news agency poll said voters favored Fukuda 28.1
percent to 18.7 percent for Aso.

Many analysts said the outcome of the LDP leadership race appeared a done
deal, but some warned uncertainty remained ahead of the September 23 poll
of party lawmakers and local chapters.

"I think the LDP is basically panicking and trying to find someone
acceptable to everyone," said Koichi Nakano, a political science
professor at Tokyo's Sophia University, referring to the sudden swell of
support for Fukuda, who had declined to run against Abe last year, citing
his age.

"But there is a world outside the LDP," Nakano said.



Abe's year in power was marred by scandals involving cabinet members and
a humiliating election defeat in July that cost his ruling coalition its
majority in parliament's upper house.

But his shock decision to step down stirred worries of delay in decisions
on vital policies such as tax and fiscal reform.

In keeping with his traditional style, Fukuda, the son of a prime
minister, sounded diffident as he declared his candidacy for president of
the LDP, and hence premier, to his supporters.

"I never even dreamed I would find myself in such a position. It's
something I hadn't considered at all," Fukuda said.

By late afternoon, he was sounding a bolder note.

"We need to tackle many problems, so I will work toward solving them with
courage and strength," he told reporters.

Aso, who unlike Fukuda shares Abe's conservative agenda aimed at reviving
traditional values and patriotism, quickly attacked the apparent backroom
deals among party faction leaders.

"Is it really OK for the play to be over before the curtain even goes
up?" he said at a news conference.

The victor of the LDP leadership race is assured of the premiership by
virtue of the ruling camp's grip on parliament's lower house, which picks
the prime minister.

Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, 63, had been the first to say he would
run in the party poll, but on Friday he withdrew and backed Fukuda, a
former chief cabinet secretary.

Enabling legislation for the mission expires on November 1 and opposition
parties are against extending it.

Agencies

(China Daily 09/15/2007 page7)

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