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Politics
Kan Survives the Ozawa Rebellion
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Ozawa vs. Kan
Tokyo -- Prime Minister Naoto Kan faced the most powerful backbench politician in the Democratic Party of Japan and emerged the victor.
With strong support from the DPJ's local chapters and ordinary party members, Kan was able to see off the challenge of former party leader Ichiro Ozawa in convincing fashion. Under the party's complex voting formula, Kan trounced Ozawa 721 points to 491 points.
Mr. Ozawa, however, fared strongly among sitting Diet Members, gaining the support of exactly 200 votes to the prime minister's 206.
Almost every analyst expected the results to be closer than they were. Most pre-election surveys found that Ozawa was likely to gain more votes from Diet Members than Kan, although the same polls predicted correctly that Kan had the strong advantage among the local chapters.
One interesting subplot in the election is that ALL the votes from Okinawa Prefecture went to the challenger Ozawa, presumably because of deep dissatisfaction over the Kan administration's position on the relocation of the US Marine airbase at Futenma.
PanOrient News spoke to a number of House of Representatives' members who were supporters of Ozawa. They expressed disappointment in the results, but also pledged to offer their support to Prime Minister Kan now that he has been re-endorsed by the party membership in a fair vote.
There was no sign that a party split is imminent.
As a result of these elections, Naoto Kan will gain a second chance to govern the nation with a reasonably united ruling party behind him. Should his leadership prove successful, there is every prospect that his administration could last until the next national elections must be held in the summer of 2013.
The future of Ichiro Ozawa is less clear, but attention will now be focused on whether or not the prime minister offers influential posts to Ozawa's many supporters within the Diet.
The offer of an olive branch at this time could consolidate party unity.
PanOrient News
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