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On January 21, DPJ President Banri Kaieda held his regular press conference at party headquarters, and made announcements about the significance of the forthcoming party convention and pre-convention discussions, and the DPJ response to the Tokyo gubernatorial.
Kaieda explained that the proposals for the DPJ annual party convention, to be held in Fukushima on February 8 and 9, had just been approved in a meeting of the Standing Officers Council, and that it would then be discussed in a General Meeting of party Diet members before being implemented at the convention. He went on to describe the significance of the convention, saying that "We will revise our party regulations in order to fortify the party's organization as we move toward next year's nationwide local elections, in particular to ensure the creation strong party branches all around the country. At the same time I would like us to discuss the policies that have been debated by Diet members in the six General Research Committees, including local assembly members in the discussions, with a view to obtaining a party-wide policy consensus."
With regard to the Tokyo gubernatorial campaign, which starts officially on January 23, Kaieda said that the Standing Officers Council had received a report from the DPJ's Tokyo Metropolitan Headquarters stating that they were intending to "act as an unofficial support group" [for former Prime Minister Hosokawa] and had confirmed they would respect this approach. The decision on the type of support to be given by party headquarters was left in the hands of Kaieda, Secretary General Akihiro Ohata and Chair of the Diet
Affairs Committee Jin Matsubara. Kaieda explained the reasons behind this
decision, stating: "The Hosokawa camp has not yet held a press conference officially announcing his intention to run, nor have they officially announced their campaign policies." He added, "We have held a variety of talks with the Hosokawa side up until now, but we would like to view his official policies before deciding what form the support from party headquarters should take."
Asked by a reporter what he envisaged as the actual content of the support to be provided by the "unofficial support group", Kaieda replied, "Our basic stance is that we will make every effort and work hard behind the scenes.
We will receive orders from the official organization of the Hosokawa campaign, and carry out truly anonymous endeavours such as handing out leaflets, putting up posters, and calling supporters."
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