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Reports: Japan's opposition leader to resign
By MARI YAMAGUCHI,Associated Press Writer AP - Monday, May 11
TOKYO - Japan's opposition leader has told his party he plans to resign amid a political funding scandal involving one of his aides, media reports said Monday.
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Ichiro Ozawa, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, told party executives he will resign because he does not want a scandal to hurt the party in elections that are due by Sept. 10, public broadcaster NHK and other media said.
NHK said party officials had approved Ozawa's decision to step down.
Party spokesmen and Ozawa's office refused to immediately comment on the reports, but said Ozawa was scheduled to hold a news conference later in the day.
Ozawa, Japan's most powerful opposition politician, has been dogged by calls for his resignation because of the scandal and the prospect that it could drag the party down in parliamentary elections, which are expected in the coming months.
Tokyo prosecutors allege Ozawa's political funding organization received 21 million yen ($216,000) in illegal donations between 2003-06. One of Ozawa's senior aides and two company executives were arrested for political funding law violations.
The resignation would be a major turnaround for Ozawa, who had said the arrests were politically motivated and vowed to stay in office.
Ozawa has not been personally implicated in any wrongdoing.
The Democrats, Japan's largest opposition party, had seen a swell in popularity until the scandal broke and were seen by many experts as being in good position to possibly defeat the ruling party in the elections for the lower house of parliament, which must be held by September.
The party capitalized on deep discontent with Prime Minister Taro Aso and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Aso's public support ratings dropped to below 20 percent in recent surveys, but have been on the rise.
Aso has the power to call elections whenever he sees fit, but must call them by Sept. 10.
Ozawa, a former ruling party chieftain who has been the DPJ president since 2006, had increasingly become a burden on the Democrats.
In a poll released earlier Monday by the Yomiuri, Japan's largest daily, 71 percent of Japanese voters said it was "unacceptable" that he continued to serve as chief of the party. That was the highest level of disapproval since the scandal first broke in March, the Yomiuri said.
The newspaper also said support continues to increase for Aso, although it stood at only 29 percent.
The Yomiuri poll was based on a telephone survey of eligible voters with 1,091 respondents taken Friday to Saturday. The poll did not give a margin of error, but polls of that size would generally have a margin of error of about 3 percent.
Before the reports of Ozawa's decision surfaced, Democratic Party executive Yukio Hatoyama acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and said further explanation was needed.
"We take it seriously as a message from the public who are scolding us that Mr. Ozawa has not fully explained the scandal," Hatoyama said. "I believe we can address that concern if Ozawa provides further explanation."
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