まゆの部屋

Maehara's campaign speech won him top job
The Yomiuri Shimbun

The two-vote win by Seiji Maehara over Naoto Kan in the ballot for the Democratic Party of Japan presidency Saturday was a result of Maehara's last-minute speech, which attracted DPJ lawmakers who were undecided about who to entrust with the future of the party.

Calling on his colleagues to "fight together" in the speech ahead of the vote, Maehara stressed the need for party unity to enable the DPJ to recover from its general election defeat.

"Candidate Naoto Kan 94 votes. Candidate Seiji Maehara 96 votes." When Ritsuo Hosokawa, manager of the election, read out the election result, a clamor rose in a Tokyo hotel hall where the ballot was held.

"I was shaken [by excitement]. It was a victory of unaligned voters within the DPJ," Koichiro Genba, a Maehara supporter said after the result was announced.

On Friday night, Maehara and his supporters estimated he would win 77 votes, 21 short of majority of the 194 DPJ Diet members participating in the election.

Maehara's vote count grew after a morning of lobbying, but he was still short of the numbers to take the presidency.

But the pessimism of the Maehara group suddenly changed when he finished a preelection 10-minute speech, his last before the election.

"There is no time to waste sentimentalizing the defeat," Maehara told his colleagues.

"Why don't we bring back fighting spirit again? Let's fight together," he continued.

Former Secretary General Tatsuo Kawabata said: "I was undecided until the last minute. But I voted for Mr. Maehara based on his speech."

Shuji Kira, a close associate of former Vice President Ichiro Ozawa, said: "Mr. Kan's message was 'Let me do it.' But Mr. Maehara's was 'Let's change [the party] together."

Former President Yukio Hatoyama, who voted for Kan, praised Maehara. "The speech must have increased his vote significantly," he said.

"We lost to his zeal," Issei Tajima, one of Kan associates, spat.

"It's unacceptable that two ballots were invalid. We can't forgive such impropriety," Tajima added.

In addition to two invalid ballots, two of the 194 lawmakers abstained.

Maehara's also mentioned personal tragedy and the House of Councillors in his speech--both appeals that went over well with his colleagues.

Maehara, a national security expert, is regarded as somewhat of a hawk. Realizing this would drive liberal colleagues to vote for Kan, close associates, including Koji Matsui, suggested Friday night that Maehara mention his childhood in his speech.

"You should appeal to their hearts. You should mention your mother was a single parent," he was told.

Initially, Maehara rejected this proposal. But in his speech, he talked about his father's death when he was in the second year of middle school, leaving his mother to raise him by herself.

"We need politics that is people-centered," he said.

On the suggestion of Yoko Komiyama and others, he extended a hand to the DPJ's upper house members.

In his speech, Maehara raised the important role of the Senate in the U.S. Congress. "I'd like to manage [the party] with the full participation of [DPJ members of] the House of Representatives and House of Councillors," he said.

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Old tactics failed


The Kan side pursued the old-fashioned election tactic of seeking support from individual groups within the party, such as one consisting of former Social Democratic Party members and another led by Hatoyama.

By Friday night, the Kan group estimated they had 90 votes, while Maehara could count on 50.

But the group was unable to forecast where the remaining 50 votes would go.

Many of the undecided DPJ lawmakers told Kan supporters who called them Friday night that they would decide Saturday.

A senior member of the Kan group expressed frustration Friday night. "We're doing better on group votes. But many members are saying they'll decide tomorrow."

Fear about where the undecided votes would fall became reality Saturday. "I had a bad feeling," said Satsuki Eda, chairman of the DPJ upper house caucus and a Kan supporter.

The group that supported Ozawa was clearly divided into two.

"When Mr. Ozawa decided not to run, I decided to vote for Mr. Maehara," Ozawa supporter Hirofumi Ryu said.

"I told the Maehara side to consider party unity," Ryu added.

"I voted for Mr. Kan from a viewpoint of crisis management," said Takuya Tasso, another Ozawa supporter.

Some members of the Ozawa group believe Maehara has a tendency to exclusion that may be seen as anti-Ozawa.

However, Maehara's inclusion of a study into the creation of a standby force for U.N. peacekeeping missions in the party's manifesto was praised within the Ozawa group because it was similar to the position taken by Ozawa.

"Even a one-vote margin victory is a victory. That's democracy. As a young man, he should work hard toward winning party government soon," Ozawa said.

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Business groups hail new leader


The business community has welcomed election of Maehara, a much younger president of the Democratic Party of Japan than his predecessor Katsuya Okada.

"He [Maehara] suits a reborn Democratic Party of Japan," said Rakutaro Kitashiro, chief secretary of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).

"It's good [for the party] to become younger," a senior member of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) said.

The business lobby groups have been hoping for the emergence of a two-party system without collusion between the ruling and opposition parties.

With the Liberal Democratic Party's resounding victory in the House of Representatives election, however, the groups are concerned that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may have excessive self-confidence following his overwhelming win and subsequently may not give sufficient consideration to their views.

According to a senior member of a major employers' association, "His [Maehara's] name is not well-known in economic circles, so nobody really knows what to expect from him."

The groups are expected to watch Maehara's moves closely in leading the DPJ's recovery from its setback in the lower house election.

The main reason the DPJ suffered such a crushing defeat in the poll, according to a member of another major employers' association, was that "the party has too many leaders."

A senior member of the Japan Business Federation said Maehara's influence on the party's many senior members would "be key to rebuilding the party."

(Sep. 19, 2005)