Mori clings to power amid ouster plot

Mori has rejected calls for him to resign

TOKYO, Japan -- Fading loyalty to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori within Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) may force his resignation in early March.

As Mori's popularity rating sank below 10 percent, former premier Ryutaro Hashimoto's faction was reportedly working behind the scenes with the LDP's main ally, the Komei Party.

Japan's leading newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, said that Mori's allies were plotting to force his resignation before the fiscal 2001 budget is passed early next month.

LDP lawmakers are apparently abandoning Mori ahead of elections for the upper house of Parliament in July, the Yomiuri said.

Losing support

Citing a survey, the newspaper said that only four of 45 upper house LDP lawmakers who responded said Mori should stay in power until the July polls. Twenty-one said they hope Mori steps down.

Mori's remarks evoking Japan's militaristic past and the lack of reform to revive the economy since he assumed power last April has sent his popularity in a downward spiral.

A newspaper poll released Monday showed that support for Mori has plunged to 9 percent amid public disgust that he finished a round of golf after learning about the sinking of a Japanese fishing boat by a U.S. submarine off Hawaii.

Mori admitted in Parliament on Monday that he made "an error of judgment" by staying on the links, but dismissed calls for him to step down.

But economics minister Taro Aso defended Mori on Tuesday.

"I think all of us, and not the prime mister alone, should share the responsibility for low support ratings," Aso said.

Economic downturn feared

Over the weekend, a Group of Seven nations meeting in Italy expressed concern about the lack of leadership in Japan to map out effective measures to revitalize a financial sector that remains weak after the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

Japan's financial sector sees the economy is unlikely to see a new recovery and that Mori's exit would pave the way for economic reform.

"As long as Prime Minister Mori insists on staying, a gloomy mood will linger," said Kazunori Jinnai, general manager of Daiwa Securities SB Capital Markets' equity department.

Mori's successor a hot topic

The market's pick as a favorable successor to Mori is Junichiro Koizumi, the quixotic head of Mori's own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) faction and a proponent of economic reforms.

But Koizumi has remained overtly loyal to Mori and the dominant LDP's coalition partners seem less enthusiastic about him as a successor.

Another candidate who seemed to get a boost at the weekend was Hiromu Nonaka, a party elder who many say would carry on with the old-fashioned backroom politicking that has become so unpopular with the public.

It remains to be seen if the 75-year-old political heavyweight would accept the post, but top leaders of the LDP's two coalition partners have floated his name. "If the successor is somebody else (besides Koizumi), that would be little help for stocks," Jinnai said.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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