Ex-Finance Minister Tanigaki to stand in LDP leadership election

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TOKYO, Sept. 13 Kyodo -
Former Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Sunday that he will run in the
election to choose the next leader of Prime Minister Taro Aso's Liberal
Democratic Party, which was battered in last month's general election.
''Someone must make the sacrifice following the (party's) heaviest defeat since
its founding,'' the veteran LDP lawmaker told reporters in Tokyo. ''I've made
up my mind to make that sacrifice myself so I can revitalize the party.''
Tanigaki, 64, who also served as transport minister, is the first to have
announced an intention to stand in the Sept. 28 election, aimed at picking the
successor to Aso, who is to step down as party president as well as prime
minister on Wednesday.
Few have expressed any willingness to take the top party position given the
daunting task of leading a party that has lost nearly two-thirds of the seats
it held in the powerful House of Representatives. The LDP has fallen from power
for only the second time in its 54-year history.
Farm minister Shigeru Ishiba, 52, and Taro Kono, 46, the son of former LDP
President Yohei Kono, are possible contenders although they have yet to reveal
their intentions.
Meanwhile, LDP Acting Secretary General Nobuteru Ishihara, 52, a son of Tokyo
Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, said Sunday he will not field his candidacy. ''I want
to support the party's renewal this time by keeping my feet firmly on the
ground,'' he told reporters in Tokyo.
Tanigaki, who was reelected in a Kyoto Prefecture constituency for a 10th term
as a lower house member in the Aug. 30 election, made an unsuccessful bid in
the September 2006 LDP presidential race, finishing third behind Shinzo Abe,
who won and became prime minister, and Aso.
The former finance minister did gain support from some party members at the
time, however, due partly to his pledge to restore the nation's fiscal health
through a plan to hike the 5 percent consumption tax rate to 10 percent.
Makoto Koga, a heavyweight who heads a faction in the party, has indicated that
his group may back Tanigaki.
Administrative reform minister and LDP member Akira Amari, who has said that
Tanigaki is suitable for the top party post, made other supportive remarks
Sunday when he said in a Fuji TV program that he is ''sincere and able to
revitalize the party through a down-to-earth approach.''
Aso is resigning on Wednesday to take responsibility for his party's election
defeat. Yukio Hatoyama, president of the rival Democratic Party of Japan, which
won a landslide victory in the lower house election, will be voted in as the
new prime minister later in the day.
Candidacies for the LDP presidential race will be formally accepted on Friday.
==Kyodo
2009-09-13 21:29:16