World

Mori Denies He Said He'd Quit

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 12, 2001 / 9:44 AM EST / CBS

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori now claims he never said he'd resign within a month.

However, speaking to a parliamentary budget committee, he didn't say he wouldn't quit, either.

In a move to limit his lame-duck status, Mori on Saturday told five top powerbrokers from his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that he would bring forward from September an election for the party presidency.

"Neither I nor the five LDP executives understood this as a statement of my intention to resign. I have absolutely no intention to state such plans," Mori told a budget panel in parliament's Upper House.

His comments were a measure of the confusion and secrecy of Japan's political leadership.

"The nation simply can't understand why this is happening behind closed doors," Yasuko Takemura, of the Democratic Party, the largest opposition group, told Mori. "Are you concerned about the people at all?"

"The media has been writing all along that (my resignation) was a done deal and they couldn't change that...So they had to write that it was a de facto resignation announcement," Mori said.

Saturday's deal was widely viewed as a face-saving compromise to let the hugely unpopular prime minister stay in office a few more weeks while paving the way for him to resign next month.

While Mori did not rule out the possibility, the prime minister is unlikely to run in the next party presidential race expected to be held as early as April, thereby effectively abandoning his bid for the next premiership.

The LDP presidency typically ensures the prime minister's seat since the party is the biggest in the three-way ruling camp, which has a majority in parliament's powerful Lower House.

Ruling party lawmakers are keen to ditch Mori — his popularity in tatters after a string of gaffes and scandals — before an Upper House election in July.

The prime minister had been under intense pressure to make clear his plans to step down ahead of an LDP convention on Tuesday, and attention is now switching to what he will say then.

Mori would seem to have little choice but to step down. His support ratings are below 10 percent and his one-year term has been marked by a constant stream of scandals and verbal and political missteps.

The secret meeting Saturday night was followed by more secrecy. No official announcement was made after the talks late Saturday, and Mori and other top party officials have not held a news conference.

Instead, the news came out indirectly: a member of Mori's ruling coalition confirmed afterward that he had indicated he will quit after this year's budget is passed. That is expected later this month.

But even that was not clear.

"I did not tell the party leaders I would resign," he said.

"I don't feel I should talk about such future matters," he added. "I want to listen carefully to the voices within the party and outside of it, and make my decision."

He even apeared to step back somewhat from that statement in the afternoon session, saying that he had no idea whether LDP presidential elections would take place early or not. His term as LDP president expires in September.

"Are you going to quit the prime minister's post when you decide that you are not running for LDP president?" asked Giichi Tsunoda, of the opposition Democrats.

Mori said: "I don't think it's the appropriate time for me to answer your question."

The opposition has vowed to intensify its attack and said they would submit to parliament a non-binding resolution seeking Mori's resignation in a bid to end the ambiguous status of Japan's 10th prime minister in 13 years.

The prime minister is thought keen to stay on at least until April 5 to complete a year in office.

Mori plans to travel to Washington on March 19 to meet President George W. Bush and then go to the Siberian city of Irkutsk for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 25.

The political paralysis could hardly come at a worse time for the economy, showing signs of slipping into recession with no easy cures in sight given near-zero interest rates and a huge public debt that makes further fiscal stimulus tough.