rash, right-leaning former Foreign Minister Taro Aso announced Friday that he will run for ruling party president in a move that would put him on track to take over as Japan's next prime minister.
Aso, 67, is widely considered the front-runner to replace struggling Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced Monday that he would step down amid sagging popularity and troubles with a split parliament.
Aso, a former Olympic skeetshooter, is focusing his campaign on Japan's troubled economy, which is suffering from stagnating growth, weak consumer spending and inflation.
"The recovery of the domestic economy and clearing the unease of the people, these are the things we have to address in the election," Aso told reporters.
Aso's candidacy for the Sept. 22 vote in the Liberal Democratic Party was widely expected. He declared just hours after Fukuda's resignation address that he was "qualified" to lead the nation.
Multiple polls have showed him to be the clear favorite among citizens, who have expressed widespread disappointment at Fukuda's quick exit.
The ruling party election is expected to be followed on Sept. 24 with a vote in parliament for prime minister. The party's hold on the powerful lower house all but guarantees that the party president will be elected premier.
Five other candidates also moved closer to officially entering the race: Economic Minister Kaoru Yosano, former Defense Minister and TV anchorwoman Yuriko Koike, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichita Yamamoto, and Nobuteru Ishihara, the son of Tokyo's governor.
The vote will take place amid political and economic uncertainty in Japan.
The opposition, which took control of the upper house of parliament in elections last year, has been pushing noisily for early lower house polls.
Citing unidentified sources, Kyodo News agency reported that the new prime minister will dissolve parliament in October and call general elections for November in hopes of breaking the logjam in the legislature.
The Asahi, a major newspaper, said on Thursday that 56 percent of Japanese are in favor of dissolving parliament and holding general elections "as soon as possible," according to a telephone poll of 1,069 people.
None of the ruling party candidates was expected to dramatically stray from the economic and diplomatic policies that Fukuda pursued, although Aso's nationalist stance could affect international relations.
9/5/2008 5:19 AM
By JAY ALABASTER
Associated Press Writer
TOKYO
Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso delivers the speech at a hotel in Nagoya, central Japan, Friday, Sept. 5, 2008. Brash, right-leaning former Foreign Minister Aso announced Friday that he will run for ruling party president in a move that would put him on track to take over as Japan's next prime minister.
(AP Photo/Kyodo News)
rash, right-leaning former Foreign Minister Taro Aso announced Friday that he will run for ruling party president in a move that would put him on track to take over as Japan's next prime minister.
