JAPAN: Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he is not thinking of staying in office beyond September 2006 when his term as ruling party leader ends, even if his coalition wins next month's election.
Speculation surfaced over the weekend that Mr Koizumi, already the longest-serving prime minister in two decades, might extend his term, following comments from members of the coalition.
"If our coalition takes a majority, I will work as hard as I can until September next year," Mr Koizumi told reporters. "I am not thinking of continuing after that."
Mr Koizumi's predecessor as head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Yoshiro Mori, said in an interview published on Sunday that Mr Koizumi should stay on if the ruling coalition wins. "If he wins the general election, he should extend his term for another year and make efforts to build a new LDP," Mr Mori told the daily Sankei Shimbun.
Mr Koizumi called a September 11th election after rebels in the LDP sided with the opposition parties and helped defeat bills to privatise the postal system, the pillar of his reform agenda.
A public opinion poll conducted at the weekend by Kyodo news agency showed that support for the LDP is about twice that of the largest opposition group, the Democratic Party.
Some 30.3 per cent of respondents said they would vote for LDP candidates in single-seat districts against 12.2 per cent for the Democrats, with similar figures for proportional representation districts.
However, more than 40 per cent said they were undecided.
Mr Koizumi, who came to power in April 2001, has repeatedly said he would step down when his second three-year term as LDP president ends in September next year. The prime minister's term is not limited by law, but LDP rules stipulate that party presidents serve three-year terms and a maximum of two consecutive terms. Those rules have been changed in the past to allow longer terms.
The representative of the ruling party usually becomes prime minister because the post is chosen by a vote in parliament.
Tsutomu Takebe, LDP secretary-general and the party's de facto campaign manager, also defended the party's policy of fielding candidates, often celebrities, against the party rebels, saying voters needed to have the choice of voting for candidates who back postal privatisation.
The LDP insists that the election is a referendum on privatising Japan Post, a giant financial institution with more than $3 trillion in assets. "This election is about asking the people whether they are for or against postal privatisation . . . so we need a candidate in every district who is for postal privatisation and is pro-reform," Mr Takebe said. "It's sad that the media is calling them 'assassins'."
The LDP has tapped a string of celebrity candidates, dubbed assassins, to run against party rebels and woo unaffiliated voters who have been key to recent elections.
Prominent among them are Takafumi Horie (32), a maverick ceo and founder of high-flying internet portal Livedoor Co, and Yuriko Koike, a former television anchor woman and now environment minister.
Democratic Party leader Katsuya Okada, however, said fixing Japan's pension system, creaking due to a falling birthrate and ageing population, should be the top priority. "For those who think the current pension system isn't working, we want you to vote for the Democratic Party and let us carry through pension reforms under a Democratic administration," he added. - (Reuters)