Japan's unpopular prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, faced an unprecedented censure in parliament's upper house on Wednesday but the embarrassing opposition move was not expected to force him either to resign or call a snap poll soon.
The opposition Democratic Party and smaller allies submitted and were expected to approve the non-binding censure motion, the first against a prime minister under the 1947 constitution, in an effort to build momentum for an early lower house election.
Ruling party officials brushed off the motion as a political gesture. "It is very unclear why they are presenting a censure motion. If I am pushed, I would have to say that they are putting on a performance for the end of the parliament session," Kazuo Kitagawa, secretary general of the ruling coalition's junior partner, the New Komeito party, told a news conference.
No election for the powerful lower chamber need be held until September 2009, but Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa has made no secret of his desire to force an early poll in the hope of ousting Fukuda's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled Japan for most of the past six decades.
"I feel that he lacks the capability to be in charge," Ozawa told reporters on Tuesday. "Fundamentally, his only option is to seek the will of the people by calling a snap election," Japanese media quoted him as saying.
Fukuda's support rates have sunk to below 20 percent in some surveys on doubts about his ability to cope with a divided parliament. The opposition controls the upper house and has delayed legislation and blocked key appointments, including the government's first two choices for Bank of Japan governor.
ELDERLY OUTRAGE
Many Japanese voters would be happy to see the LDP lose its grip on power, but also have doubts about whether the Democrats, an often fractious group of former LDP members, ex-socialists and hawkish younger lawmakers, are ready to take the reins.
"I think the ruling party in Japan needs to change ... Our generation is the one that needs to push this kind of political change," said 33-year-old secretary Kanako Koga.
The 71-year-old Fukuda, a moderate known for favouring closer ties with Asian neighbours, has already indicated that he has no plan to step down as a result of the censure, which unlike a lower house no-confidence motion has no legal clout.
