The stage will be set today for what could well be a historic political battle for control of the government.
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Taro Aso is expected to win the party presidential election hands down today. If so, Aso would be named prime minister when the extraordinary Diet session convenes on Wednesday, due to the LDP's overwhelming majority in the powerful Lower House.
LDP prefectural chapters were counting the votes of party members over the weekend and Aso was set to gain an overwhelming majority of the 141 votes set aside for the 47 prefectural chapters.
LDP Diet members will cast their votes today and Aso is expected to pick up about 60 percent of those votes, meaning he will be elected party president on the first ballot.
Political sources have said Aso was preparing to dissolve the Lower House early in October for a snap election to be held Oct. 26.
Meanwhile, Ichiro Ozawa was formally re-elected as president of the opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) on Sunday. He indicated that he was prepared to take on the LDP in the upcoming Lower House election for control of the government.
"There is no meaning to being a politician unless that individual is prepared to take over the reins of government," Ozawa said at Sunday's Minshuto convention. "I will stake my political life on the upcoming battle and inject everything I have from my political life into creating a new Japan."
Ozawa said that if his party did gain control of government he would call for a drastic rewriting of the budget. About 10 percent of the total would be set aside to implement policy proposals Minshuto considers important, he said.
Among the proposals Ozawa would implement were eliminating expressway tolls and creating a new system of government payments for families with children.
Ozawa also said his party would drastically overhaul the bureaucracy.
"By fundamentally revising the central government structure centered on the bureaucracy, we will be able to obtain the revenues necessary for a safety net for the people," Ozawa said.
He also criticized Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's abrupt resignation earlier this month.
"While the LDP president may be able to simply quit governing, the people cannot simply quit their daily lives," Ozawa said. "People who do not even understand such a basic fact are not fit to run government."(IHT/Asahi: September 22,2008)
