2ND LD: Upper house votes down censure motion against Takenaka

Japan Policy & Politics, July 22, 2003

TOKYO, July 16 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH LDP DEVELOPMENTS, TAKENAKA COMMENTS)

The House of Councillors on Wednesday voted down a censure motion submitted by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to demand the resignation of economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka.

Although the nonbinding motion was rejected by a majority vote of the governing tripartite coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), two LDP lawmakers abstained, underscoring growing discontent toward Takenaka within the ruling party.

The motion accused Takenaka, who doubles as financial services minister, of economic mismanagement. It was rejected by a 137-100 vote in the 247-seat upper chamber in a plenary session. The secretariat of the chamber said 237 ballots were cast.

Asked later in the day to comment on the outcome of the vote which underscored his eroding support, Takenaka said, ''There are those who are for structural reforms and those who are against.''

''There are those who are critical, but they are outnumbered by calls encouraging me to do more.''

Given the rejection, the upper house will resume its deliberations on pending bills, including one for sending Self-Defense Forces (SDF) troops to Iraq, which the government says is intended to help with Iraq's reconstruction.

The opposition parties may move a no-confidence motion against Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet with the primary aim of blocking the SDF dispatch bill before the Diet session ends July 28.

A senior DPJ lawmaker said the censure motion was aimed at shaking up the ruling coalition as some of its lawmakers have been urging Koizumi to sack Takenaka.

The two LDP members who abstained were Hirohide Uozumi and Shin Sakurai. Uozumi and Sakurai belong to one of the anti-Koizumi factions within the LDP.

Commenting on the abstentions, Koizumi only said, ''Those were their own decisions.''

Mikio Aoki, who leads the party's caucus in the upper chamber, met with the two LDP lawmakers in the afternoon and warned them against deviating from party voting decisions in future.

In the meeting, Sakurai said he did not agree with Takenaka's policies, and that he wanted to vote for the motion if he could, according to LDP lawmakers.

Uozumi was quoted as saying that he was against the minister's philosophy, which he described as allowing only the strong to survive.

But the two submitted documents promising to follow the party line in future, as requested by Aoki, the lawmakers said.

In submitting the motion on Tuesday, the DPJ criticized the Koizumi cabinet's economic policies, including its injection of nearly 2 trillion yen of public funds into Resona Bank.

The party also cited Takenaka's responsibility for the prolonged economic slump and questioned his fitness as economic minister due to what it called his ''careless'' remarks.

Takenaka came under heavy fire after urging other cabinet ministers in February to buy exchange-traded funds by saying, ''You will surely make profits.''