Fight for premiership of Japan begins

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 18

Fight for premiership of Japan begins

(By

KOJI NAKAMURA)

TOKYO (Japan). The Prime Minister, Mr Eisaku Sato, aged 70, has set the stage for a struggle to determine' who will lead Japan when; he retires next year as the longest serving premier in his nation’s history.

And the man everyone is watching is 53-year-old Yasuhiro Nakasone, the United States - educated political dynamo who, until Sato’s July 5 Cabinet reshuffle, was minister in charge of the Defence Agency.

He now holds the chairmanship of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Executive Board—a switch calculated to make him or break him in his ambitions to lead, an unprecedentedly powerful Japan. The Cabinet and partyexecutive reorganisation, in fact, was a classic example' of Sato’s divide-and-rule methods. It was division rather than distribution of power among the party factions now gearing themselves for Sato’s retirement. His two-year term as party president ends in November next year. Sato’s mastery of the men around him has kept him in power since 1964. Already he has served longer than any post-war premier. By late next year he will have beaten the record set some 50 years ago by Taro Katsua, who was Prime Minister for seven years and 10 months.

On tender ground In moving Nakasone to the Executive Board chairmanship, Sato neither promoted nor demoted him. It was a characteristically Machiavellian decision, for it means Nakasone must learn all the tricks of self preservation—the hard way. Nakasone knows he is on tender ground. Mr Sadanori Yamanaka, minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, is not on speaking terms with Nakasone. Yamanaka was the only member of the old Cabinet to keep his job. The Liberal Democratic Party has three executive “pillars” beneath the president: the secretary-general, the chairman of the Political Research Commission and the chairman of the Executive Board.

The secretary-general is the most important of the three. He manages party affairs, supervises elections and is responsible for raising party funds. Usually the

president appoints his most trusted ally to this position. But the drafting of policies at party level' is the domain lof the Political Research ■Commission. All administration bills are cleared or : rejected by its chairman. Thus it wields power over government.

Balancing function If the roles of the first two “pillars” are easily defined, that of the Executive Committee is notable for its wide and sometimes hazy functioning base. It is a sounding board for senior party members: a sort of L.D.P. watchdog. As such it has a balancing function.

Sato has relieved Mr Kakuei Tanaka as secretarygeneral and put Mr Shigeru Hori in the job. Tanaka, one of Sato’s closest deputies, is keen to succeed to the presidency. Sato, however, prefers Takeo Fukuda, former Finance Minister and now Foreign Minister. .He knows Hori is one of the strongest voices in, the Fukuda-for-president faction.

the Liberal Democratic Party holds 303 seats in the House of Representatives, and the “Sato faction” numbers 62 members. The second biggest faction welded in the last few years by Mr Shigesaburo Maeo, now is headed by former foreign minister Masayoshi Ohira.

The Minister for Trade and Industry, Tanaka, claims he can count on about 50 members in the Sato faction when the Prime Minister steps down. Fukuda, who heads the fourth biggest faction with 38 members, is not a popular figure in the party hierarchy. But Japan’s powerful business world is supporting his plans for the presidency. ' Nakasone no wleads a’36man faction which is far from well-controlled. Strife is' more evident in his group than in any other L.D.P. faction. Yet it must be remembered that not even Nakasone believes he has a real chance of winning the presidency

next year: his sights are set on the party election of 1974. Money worry Much depends on Tanaka’s position next year. For a start, Nakasone does not enjoy the full y trust of fellow politicians, largely because of what they regard as his “opportunist” performances both in policy and party loyalties. (In November last year, Nakasone emerged a strong supporter of Sato’s bid for a fourth term as president; earlier he had supported his boss’s chief rival.) Since Ohira has already said he will run for the presidency, Nakasone’s “negotiating” power has declined perceptibly. As long as Ohira is available for the top post, both Fukuda and Tanaka would court his support rather than Nakasone’s. The former defence chief’s first worry now is funds: cash-raising is not his forte and, .in Japan’s plutocratic political structure, an inability to keep your faction well-heeled can prove fatal. At the Defence Agency, Nakasone made himself one of the nation’s most controversial figures. Some accused him of “policy overkill.” His aim to have Japanese anned forces operate in an "independently allied” capacity with those of the United States found favour with nationalistic elements who were confident of Japan's ability to defend itself without help. But it was immensely unpopular with more sober-minded sections of his party, committed to the United States and to the avoidance of militarism. Factional unity and support from the business lobbies will weigh heavily on Yasuhiro Nakasone’s mind in the coming months. There is no doubt he regards this “pause” in his career as one ripe for exploitation. He has proven himself a man not easily beaten. In his new position, he holds enough rope on which/ to ascend the party hierarchy—or throttle his own ambitions. —lntrasia News Service.