Japan's ruling party to elect next prime minister

The ruling party of Japan was to elect the man who will become the country's sixth new prime minister in five years on Monday, but no candidate was expected to land a knock-out blow in the first round.

The contest, a bitter fight within the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), comes amid public disenchantment over the government's response to the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster and nuclear accident.

The outgoing premier, Naoto Kan, on Friday confirmed his resignation after 15 turbulent months in office, after his approval rating had plummeted from a high of 65 percent to just 15 percent, according to media polls.

Five candidates, all men, spent the weekend jockeying for support among the 398 DPJ lawmakers who will choose the new party president, to be confirmed as the new prime minister by parliament on Tuesday.

The DPJ started its meeting at 11:00am (0200 GMT). The five contenders were giving brief speeches ahead of voting which, in the absence of a clear favourite, was expected to go into a second round the same day.

The party will choose the party's third leader since it swept to power in a landslide two years ago, but voter enthusiasm for the DPJ has fallen away because of scandals, infighting and its management of the March disaster.

Among the candidates, former foreign minister Seiji Maehara was until last week seen as the front-runner and the people's choice, tipped by pundits to beat his closest rival, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, 54.

However, the game changed when scandal-tainted but powerful faction boss Ichiro Ozawa announced he would throw his support behind Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda, making him the new man to beat.

Kaieda told the party conference: "I'm resolutely determined to stake my life on overcoming the national crisis... There are tasks that no one but I can handle. I want to carry them out in the nation's highest office."

The DPJ is split between supporters and enemies of Ozawa, dubbed Japan's "Shadow Shogun", who commands the loyalty of about 130 lawmakers, many of whom he coached in electioneering and helped get elected.

Ozawa, a defector from the conservative Liberal Democrats, is considered a kingmaker even though he lost a contest against Kan last year and was stripped of his party membership after being indicted over a funding scandal.

Kaieda, 62, has been a key figure handling the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the world's worst since Chernobyl 25 years ago, which forced the evacuation of 80,000 people and ultimately cost Kan his job.

Contaminated food, some of which ended up in shops and restaurants, has heightened public fears about the radiation seeping from reactors that suffered meltdowns and explosions after the huge quake.Kaieda, who has been at odds with Kan's anti-nuclear stance, has proposed that Japan restart stalled nuclear plants once they are confirmed safe.

Under the strain of handling the Fukushima emergency, Kaieda, formerly a popular media pundit on economic issues, recently broke down in tears after a barrage of hostile questioning by opposition lawmakers.
Kaieda has suggested he would reinstate Ozawa's DPJ membership if elected.

Maehara, who at 49 would be Japan's youngest post-war premier, has backed Kan's proposal for a nuclear phase-out. The Kyoto native is a security expert who has taken a hard line on China in ongoing territorial spats.

Maehara resigned five months ago as foreign minister for taking donations from a family friend who is an ethnic Korean, in contravention of political funding laws, a fact the opposition is likely to seize upon again.

Noda, as finance minister, has led mixed efforts to revitalise an economy plagued by decades of deflation and struggled to bring down huge public debt and a strong yen that is hurting exporters and a fragile post-quake rebound.

The other candidates are the farm minister, Michihiko Kano, 69, and former transport minister Sumio Mabuchi, 51.

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