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On July 15, DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama spoke to reporters at his Tokyo office.
Asked how he viewed the continuing confusion within the ruling LDP, characterized by the resignation of Election Strategy Council head Makoto Koga and the participation of many LDP Diet members, including Minister of Finance Kaoru Yosano, in a petition calling for a joint plenary meeting of LDP Diet members, Hatoyama responded, “Yesterday, when the motion of no-confidence was submitted, all LDP Diet members voted as a body to express their confidence in Prime Minister Aso as the representative of the people. [The fact that this kind of confusion can be seen] on the very next day, is totally incomprehensible from the perspective of the Japanese people, who are wondering what on earth is going on after just one day has passed. This sort of action could be seen as a kind of betrayal.”
He added, “The most important thing is that the people’s trust in politicians is being called into to question, so having voted to express their confidence in Prime Minister Aso, it seems the natural thing for the LDP to fight the election under the leadership of Prime Minister Aso.”
When asked whether he thought there would be a change in the proposed schedule of dissolving the Diet on July 21 and holding a general election on August 30, considering the continued moves to unseat Aso within the LDP, Hatoyama answered, “The electorate see this as something that has been decided. It would be quite difficult to shift from those dates.” He added, “Moreover the LDP should not consider such a thing […] They should be conducting politics that sees things from the people’s viewpoint, but the electorate are totally absent from this kind of talk.”
Hatoyama repeated his opinion that movements in the LDP that amount to a vote of no-confidence in the Prime Minister, would not be understood by the electorate since they follow in the wake of the vote of confidence by LDP Diet members in yesterday’s House of Representatives session. He commented, “To put it another way, I have a feeling that this just goes to show how far the LDP is from functioning as an administration, or as a political party.” He added regarding the election schedule, “Once it has been decided, the schedule has been determined by the Prime Minister with the cooperation of the ruling party executive, and so should not be changed.”
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