Sep 15: Some days ago when Shinzo Abe announced on Wednesday that he wants to resign sent shock waves all over Japanese political community. After his resignation what names are coming up in the list of likely prime minister are Yusuo Fukuda former chief cabinet secretary and secretary-general of ruling liberal Democratic Party Taro Aso.
Earlier finance minister Fukushiro Nukaga also declared his candidacy but later gave up in favour of Fukuda. Abe’s resignation almost created the situation of emergency. In such crisis Fukuda came forward.
On Saturday both the contestants filed their nominations for the LPD presidential elections, which are due on September 23.
This is to be known that Shinzo Abe decided to step down if he is not supported in his military plans and mission. Since the birth of the government it has been in the grip of scandals and has been criticized for allying with US.
Prospects of winning elections are high on the profile of Fukuda as the eight factions out of nine factions of party are backing him. He is supposed to win with a majority of votes 528 as lawmakers hold 387 votes along with 141 votes of prefectural chapters. On Friday he got the support of 277 parliamentarians out of 387. Rest of the picture will be clear only after the elections.
Fukuda has given indications of his foreign policy lines by saying that due to overstress on relations with US, Japan could not maintain good relations with its Asian neighbors. Thus he reflected where he is going to concentrate. But this also puts a question, as there are both supporters and opponents of anti-terrorism measures in the factions of party who backed him.
Due to all these factors the contest may also take ideological turns. Ideology may be one of the determining factors
Fukuda does not follow any extreme ideology and is a moderate though he criticized strong military relations with US.
Only one faction of the party, which contains only 16 members, backs Taro Aso but his hopes rest on regional leaders.
Though the prospects of the victory of the former chief cabinet secretary are clear but things need to be confirmed by the election results. As analysts believe that anti-terrorism being a crucial issue anything may happen.
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