The growing calls within the ruling Democratic Party of Japan for a grand coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party may accelerate a movement to force Prime Minister Naoto Kan to step down as early as this month.

On June 5, DPJ Secretary-General Katsuya Okada said a short-term coalition would be necessary to ensure progress in the rebuilding process through passage of a second supplementary budget and legislation to allow for the issuance of deficit-covering government bonds.

While LDP officials have also touched upon their willingness to enter into a grand coalition, they have also made it clear that such a development would only happen after Kan stepped down this month as prime minister.

On a June 5 TV program on the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK), Okada said, “Be it a grand coalition or some other format, I want to seek out a structure that will allow for cooperation among all the political parties.”

Okada later told reporters, “It is desirable for the ruling and opposition parties to cooperate, by limiting the themes for discussion and time period. That would be necessary to overcome such matters as rebuilding after the natural disasters and dealing with a unified reform of the taxation and social security systems.”

Okada stressed that under such a coalition, the prime minister would have to be selected from the party with the largest number of seats in the Diet.

Other DPJ lawmakers have also mentioned the need for a wider coalition.

Former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said on June 5, “If the bill to issue government bonds does not pass, a second supplementary budget and the rebuilding process will not move forward. To resolve the issue, a grand coalition will be necessary for a predetermined period of time.”

During a June 3 news conference, Koichiro Genba, the state minister in charge of national policy, also stressed the need for a coalition.

“It will be important to create a structure of cooperation between the ruling and opposition parties that will lead to a strong political foundation,” Genba said.

Meanwhile, LDP officials reiterated their calls for an early resignation by Kan.

LDP Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara said Kan should step down by the end of June.

Asked by reporters about Okada’s suggestion to form a grand coalition, Ishihara said, “There will be a need to create a new political framework after the DPJ has decided on a new leader, created a relationship of trust (with the LDP), decided on what policies to handle and set a time period.”

Another LDP executive said, “Once Kan steps down as prime minister, a grand coalition for a set period of time could be possible after deciding on a schedule for a Lower House election.”

In a June 1 Diet debate with Kan, LDP head Sadakazu Tanigaki also touched upon the possibility of a grand coalition as long as Kan resigned and said, “If Prime Minister Kan should resign, there would be many different courses for the parties to come together across party lines.”

For his part, Kan has indicated that he wants to remain in power until this summer.

On June 5, Kan met with Tsuyoshi Saito, the DPJ’s acting Diet Affairs Committee chairman, and others and said he would step down after he was assured that a second supplementary budget and legislation for the issuance of government bonds appeared headed for Diet passage.

The second supplementary budget is expected to be submitted to the Diet in August, and Kan apparently wants to step down after it passes with the cooperation of the opposition parties.

However, with a growing momentum toward a grand coalition within the DPJ and with the still strong demands from the LDP that Kan resign in June as a precondition for any coalition, there is the possibility that more DPJ officials will also call on Kan to step down this month to move the political situation forward.

Kan told Cabinet members of his intent to step down this summer over the phone on June 4 after he appeared to put off his departure by offering no specific timetable, despite his pledge last week to do so to stave off a no-confidence vote in the Lower House.

In talking with key Cabinet members, Kan denied explicitly that his remarks in a news conference on June 2 after the no-confidence vote was rejected earlier in the day and his statement in the Diet session on June 3 were attempts to delay his departure.

“I did not make those remarks with such an intent,” he was quoted as saying by one Cabinet member.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters on June 4 that he is not sure whether Kan will visit the United States for a summit meeting scheduled for September.

“I am convinced that he is not intending to prolong his term as prime minister,” Edano said.

DPJ senior officials one after another began voicing support for Kan’s early resignation apparently because they feared leaving the time frame ambiguous any longer would exacerbate political turmoil.

Yukio Hatoyama, Kan’s predecessor, had even called the prime minister an “imposter” in a bitter dispute over whether Kan had committed to a certain time frame for his resignation.

Some Diet members close to Hatoyama have begun collecting signatures in a campaign to call an assembly of DPJ members of both houses with an eye to submitting a motion demanding Kan’s dismissal as party president.

Even those in the middle-of-the-road faction of the DPJ expressed their feelings of being completely betrayed by Kan. They voted down the no-confidence motion on the premise that Kan would resign before long.

The anti-Kan sentiment even spilled over to DPJ legislators close to Kan, threatening to send the ruling party out of control in bickering and infighting.

Asahi Shimbun