Japan

Opposition files no confidence motion as Aso calls snap poll

Article published on the 2009-07-13 Latest update 2009-07-13 14:52 TU

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso to call August election
(Photo: Reuters)

Japan’s opposition lodged a motion of no confidence in parliament against Prime Minister Taro Aso. The motion comes hard on the heels of Sunday's Tokyo metropolitan election which saw the ruling centre-right Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffer a crushing defeat.

The no confidence motion, which is the first of its kind since Aso took over as Prime Minister in September, is "more symbolic than anything", says correspondent Julian Ryall.

"It was never going to get through," he says. "It is ratcheting up pressure on the government.”

The opposition Democratic Party (DPJ) won 54 seats in the Tokyo poll to 38 for the LDP, ending four decades of LDP dominance.

The Prime Minister’s election bureau chief said that Aso would call a snap national election for 30 August.

"He is getting it from three angles,' says Ryall. "From the opposition who are very strong and being very vocal; he’s getting it from the electorate who really don’t like the Prime Minister and now he is getting it from within his own party.

“There are members of his own party who are making moves to get him to step down to avoid a complete annihilation when we have the national election.”

Ryall says that voters are tired of the Liberal Democratic Party.

"This last administration in particular seems to have struggled from one crisis to the next,” he says.

The Kyodo news agency reported that Aso had told his LDP colleagues that parliament would be dissolved on 21 July with the election to be held on 30 August.

"The [Tokyo] results were severe," said top government spokesman Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura. "It was a local election but we have to sincerely accept the results."

The LDP is now in danger of losing power at national level for just the second time since 1955. The only previous occasion saw them in opposition for only ten months.