The Press SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1972. Mr Tanaka holds on

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33101, 16 December 1972, Page 14

The Press SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1972. Mr Tanaka holds on

As was expected, there was less emphasis on policy issues during the Japanese election campaign than on faction fighting, particularly inside the ruling Liberal Democratic party. Traditional Japanese courtesy was forgotten as group leaders indulged in bitter name-calling. This was apparently started, at any rate within the L.D.P., by the Prime Minister s chief rival. Mr Fukuda, a former Foreign Minister, who was defeated for the party leadership bv Mr Tanaka last July. In his own electoral district. Gumma, Mr Fukuda referred bitingly to the failure of the party to allow him to “ organise a Cabinet ”. In his first campaign speech he told his supporters: “ One day the Japanese people will want me, and “ to prepare for that day I must be the number one “ w inner in this district The voters gave him that satisfaction, well clear of Mr Tanaka’s Trade Minister, who had described Mr Fukuda as “a senile old “man”. Mr Fukuda still leads the largest faction within the L.D.P., but lacks the following needed to challenge Mr Tanaka’s position as Prime Minister.

During the campaign the question of restructuring the economy, including a possible revaluation of the yen, was barely touched on. Mr Tanaka had in fact removed from the list two issues that might have been critical talking-points for the Opposition parties: he had achieved a rapprochement with China, and had announced his solution to the pollution problem—a grandiose scheme entitled “ Remodelling “the Japanese Archipelago”. He has now been given the opportunity to prove that the plan is practical, not merely visionary. The reduction of Mr Tanaka’s working majority in the Diet was caused by the recovery by the Socialists and the Communists. The Socialists increased their representation from 87 to 118, and the Communists from 14 to 38. The latter result was probably a reflection of Communist strength in local politics, w’here the party has the third-largest representation. The Socialist party, by its considerable gains, may have staved off the dissolution threatened by bitter faction fighting.

Mr Tanaka will now need to concentrate on measures to restrain prices, and on such urgent problems as pollution, overcrowding in housing areas, and traffic congestion. It is almost certain, too, that his Foreign Minister, Mr Ohira, will seek further talks in Moscow, aimed at securing the return of at least key islands in the Kurile chain, annexed by Russia in 1945. By and large, however, the significance of the election is not to be found in its impact on national policies, the course of which is likely to remain steady, but as a pointer to possible changes within the conservative L.D.P. The size of Mr Fukuda’s personal following suggests that there may yet be a return to the old leadership of the Right.