Japan PM begins ruling party head reelection bid

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will be challenged by three rivals to lead the country’s ruling party as it confronts a new political force headed by Osaka’s mayor ahead of elections that could come as early as October, according to Bloomberg.

Noda is favored to win the Sept 21 contest to head the Democratic Party of Japan, which is supported by less than one- fifth of the country’s voters. Former internal affairs minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi, and Hirotaka Akamatsu and Michihiko Kano, each of whom have served as farm minister, announced their candidacies.

Both the DPJ and the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party have been undermined by the rise of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who has become Japan’s most popular politician with his attacks on the gridlock from a split parliament. Hashimoto on Sept 8 announced the name of his new national party to vie in elections that Noda has pledged to call “soon.”

In a campaign policy outline, Noda pledged to end deflation within a year and build no more atomic plants in a country still reeling from last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster. He also said he would nationalize islands at the center of a territorial dispute with China.