TOKYO--Japanese ruling party heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa is leaving the
party along with 51 other lawmakers, undermining Prime Minister
Yoshihiko Noda's grip on power less than a week after he won key
passage of a divisive bill to raise the consumption tax.
Mr. Ozawa's decision to break ranks with the Democratic Party of Japan
is another chapter in the dramatic career of the 70-year-old
politician, dubbed the "destroyer" by Japanese media for instigating
splits in a number of political parties over two decades.
The departures leave the ruling DPJ with a slimmer majority in the
lower house, raising the prospect of Mr. Noda being forced out of
office should more party rebels follow suit.
"We handed in our resignations to the secretary general," Kenji
Yamaoka, Mr. Ozawa's aide, told reporters.
The DPJ-led ruling coalition would lose its majority in the lower
house if 55 of its members in the chamber leave, depriving it of the
power to block the passage of a no-confidence vote against the prime
minister. If the vote passes, Mr. Noda must either resign, or dissolve
parliament for a general election.
Of the 52 members that left the party on Monday, 40 were with the more
powerful lower house that chooses the prime minister, and the
remainder with the upper house.
Mr. Noda assumed office only last September, and is Japan's sixth
prime minister in six years. The ruling party split underscores the
volatility that dogs the country's political system.
While the two largest opposition parties have thrown their support
behind the tax bill and seek its passage in the upper house, they are
threatening to submit a no-confidence vote against Mr. Noda once the
bill is approved, expected to be in August.
Write to Alexander Martin at alexander.martin@dowjones.com
(An earlier version of this story misstated the source in the first paragraph.)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 02, 2012 00:25 ET (04:25 GMT)
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