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Leader of Japan’s Opposition Resigns
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Japanese opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa told his party he will resign Monday at his parties headquarters in Tokyo on Monday.
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: May 11, 2009
TOKYO — Ichiro Ozawa, the Japanese opposition leader, announced his resignation on Monday, saying he wanted to prevent a campaign finance scandal involving one of his aides from hurting his party’s chances of unseating the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party.
Mr. Ozawa told a hastily gathered news conference that he would step down as head of Japan’s main opposition Democratic Party, whose lead in public opinion polls has shrunk as a result of the scandal. The scandal erupted in early March, when prosecutors arrested one of Mr. Ozawa’s aides, who is accused of taking illegal donations from a construction company.
Mr. Ozawa had tried to ride out the controversy, criticizing the prosecutors for what he called a politically motivated investigation, while stopping short of accusing them of helping the unpopular Liberal Democrats. But the scandal appears to have further tarnished Japanese voters’ views of both parties ahead of a national election that must be held by Sept. 10.
By resigning, Mr. Ozawa, 66, was relinquishing what has been a nearly two-decade personal quest to end the Liberal Democrats’ half-century hold on power. Before the scandal, that goal appeared within his grasp, as political stalemate and economic stagnation turned voters against Prime Minister Taro Aso.
“I hope by removing myself,” Mr. Ozawa said, “I can remove even the smallest negative points for the party and, above all, help it achieve a changing of governments. This is in the interest of the Japanese people, and is the mission of the Democratic Party.”
The resignation appears certain to throw Japan’s already murky political situation into further confusion. The scandal has added to the widespread perception that political paralysis has hindered Japan from responding quickly to the global financial crisis, or from coming up with a formula for ending the nation’s longer-term economic decline.
The resignation also leaves a void at the top of Japan’s largest opposition party. While Mr. Ozawa was never seen as a populist or a gifted public speaker, his abilities as a political campaigner and fund-raiser were seen as the glue that held together the Democrats, a broad coalition that ranges from conservatives like Mr. Ozawa to former Socialists.
This wide spectrum of views has made it hard for the party to come up with a clear platform with which to challenge the Liberal Democrats. The Democratic Party has called for clipping the wings of the nation’s powerful bureaucrats, protecting consumers over the interests of industry and showing more diplomatic independence from Washington, while not going so far as to end the security alliance with the United States.
During the news conference, Mr. Ozawa told reporters he would continue to serve as a legislator, and to work to end the Liberal Democrats’ reign. But with persistent reports of Mr. Ozawa’s failing health, many political analysts have wondered if a resignation will effectively end the career of one of Japan’s most skilled political insiders.
Mr. Ozawa is known as one of the last of Japan’s shadow shoguns, having learned the art of Japan’s consensus-driven backroom politics as a young lawmaker from past prime ministers like Kakuei Tanaka, who invented the nation’s current version of pork-barrel politics. Once anointed as a future leader of the Liberal Democrats, Mr. Ozawa bolted the party in 1993 to help organize the fledgling centrist opposition.
The current scandal proved damaging to Mr. Ozawa partly because it touched on one of his party’s weakest points with voters: the concern that Mr. Ozawa was no cleaner than the Liberal Democrats he was trying to depose. It did not help Mr. Ozawa that after arresting his aide and raiding his office, prosecutors spent weeks leaking damaging accusations about him to Japanese news organizations.
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