Power vacuum in Japan as PM falls into coma

Japan was thrown into political and constitutional confusion yesterday. The Prime Minister, Keizo Obuchi, appeared to be close to death after suffering a stroke over the weekend.

After more than a day of obfuscation, the acting prime minister, Mikio Aoki, finally admitted that Mr Obuchi had fallen into a coma late on Sunday and was being kept alive on a respirator.

Politicians and the Japanese media were careful not to rule out his chances of recovery, but it appears likely that the 62-year-old Prime Minister will never wake up, creating a sudden and unexpected void in the leadership of the world's second-richest country.

Members of Mr Obuchi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were already discussing his successor last night, and the government stressed that his demise would have no effect on Japan's economic policy. But his stroke has created a unique and constitutionally baffling situation - how to secure the resignation of a prime minister who is not dead, but who may never speak or move again.

The extraordinary chain of events began on Saturday when, after months of bickering and recrimination, the leaders of the minority Liberal Party announced that it was abandoning Mr Obuchi's three-party coalition.

The failure of the negotiations appeared to have taken its toll on Mr Obuchi, who also had to deal with the eruption of a volcano in the northern island of Hokkaido.

Officials at the Prime Minister's office initially claimed that he had spent much of Sunday working at home. In truth he had been taken to hospital at 1am, 22 hours before an official announcement was made late on Sunday. Then yesterday morning, Mr Aoki, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, announced that Mr Obuchi had suffered a stroke and had asked him to take acting leadership.

A few hours later, he admitted that Mr Obuchi was unconscious and breathing only by artificial means.

Constitutionally, a prime minister can be permanently replaced after his resignation, but the laws give no guidance about an incumbent who is incapable of expressing his will.

"At this point, it is difficult for the premier to make his own decisions," a bemused Mr Aoki observed. "We will have to decide what to do after considering his condition." Constitutional experts say Liberal Democrat leaders may be able to "simulate" Mr Obuchi's decision to resign, before appointing a new party head who will then be elected prime minister by the government's parliamentary majority.

It will probably not be Mr Aoki, who has never expressed a desire to be prime minister. Last night, the favourite appeared to be Yoshiro Mori, the Liberal Democrats' secretary general, or the Foreign Minister, Yohei Kono, with an outsider's chance for Kiichi Miyazawa, the octogenarian Finance Minister, who served as premier in the early 1990s.

The crisis comes at a fraught time for Japan, which is showing faltering signs of recovery from its worst recession in 40 years. The LDP's tiny majority forced it to form an uneasy coalition with the Liberals and the Buddhist New Komeito Party. It was suggested yesterday that Mr Obuchi's stroke was a consequence of stress and overwork. The Liberal leader, Ichiro Ozawa, said he regretted "speaking so frankly" during recent discussions with the Prime Minister.

When he became Prime Minister in 1998, Mr Obuchi was considered something of a joke, his stolid and and uncharismatic manner earning him the nickname "cold pizza". Describing his relationship to two former Liberal Democrat prime ministers, he referred to himself as a "noodle shop between two skyscrapers".

But within a year, his popularity ratings had soared to record levels, although the bubble burst after he formed his alliance with the Liberals and New Komeito, widely regarded as a marriage of convenience.