Japan

PM resigns over government paralysis

Article published on the 2008-09-01 Latest update 2008-09-02 08:51 TU

Japan's prime minister Yasuo Fukuda resigns, 1 September 2008
(photo:Reuters)

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced his resignation on Monday after almost one year of running the government. Japan's opposition immediately criticised Fukuda's action and called for early elections.

72-year-old Yasuo Fukuda said the tense situation in parliament had prompted him to resign. In fact, since the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (Minshuto) won control of the Senate last year, it has fiercely opposed all of the government's bills. General elections are not due until September 2009.

Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party (Jiminto), which has been in power in Japan for all but ten months since 1955, hoped to reverse its flagging fortunes when Fukuda took office almost a year ago. But his government brought in a highly unpopular medical coverage plan that raised costs for the elderly.

“The prime minister has been in trouble for quite some time now,” correspondent Julian Ryall in Tokyo told RFI.

“Nothing is going through [parliament], he’s becoming very frustrated, and he didn’t really have a great deal of choice but to resign,” Ryall said.

According to a poll released on Monday, before Fukuda announced he was stepping down, the government's approval rating had dropped nine points in the past month to 29 per cent.

The same poll tips Taro Aso, a former LDP foreign minister, as the most popular candidate to replace Fukuda, and the LDP will hold an internal election to elect a new leader.

At the end of August, Fukuda introduced a 73-billion-euro stimulus package to boost the economy.

In other news, four Upper House (House of Councillors) members announced on Friday the creation of a new political party.