TOKYO: Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda stormed to victory in a party poll yesterday, vowing to revamp his troubled ruling Democratic Party of Japan ahead of upcoming general elections.
Noda won more than 60pc of points available in a vote by lawmakers, local assembly members and individual lay members in a weighted poll for party president, which at present automatically confers the post of premier.
Lawmakers’ votes count for more than those of other party members.
“I would like to beef up our teamwork so that we can shift the DPJ once again to make it a fighting force that can serve Japan,” Noda told his fellow lawmakers.
Noda’s re-election after a little over a year in post was all but certain from the moment his telegenic environment minister Goshi Hosono decided against taking a tilt at leadership.
Hosono, 41, who was seen as an electable leader for a party that is struggling in the opinion polls, would have been Japan’s youngest ever prime minister if he had won.
Under party rules a leadership contest must be held every two years. That interval has now been extended to three years.
As premier and leader of the DPJ -- currently the biggest party in parliament -- Noda has pushed through unpopular legislation on doubling sales tax.
This, alongside general disenchantment with his once-popular party, has left many lawmakers fearing for their jobs in the general election expected this autumn.
However, a dearth of credible alternatives meant the contest was something of a formality for the premier.
“I have to make decisions even when the public is divided,” Noda told party members after the result was announced.
“I have felt the weight of this responsibility over the last year.
“Now I feel anew the graveness of my responsibility at a time we have difficulties at home and overseas.”
The DPJ came to power in 2009 after five decades of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, but its once-radical agenda was largely jettisoned.
AFP
