LDP in disarray as Miyazawa steps down as party leader: Japanese Prime Minister accused of being a war criminal by Young Turks in open revolt against older generation

THE Japanese Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa, resigned as head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) yesterday, but even as he stepped down he was subjected to an unprecedented barrage of criticism from young LDP members, angry at the party's continued reluctance to reform itself. The extraordinary public display of disrespect towards party elders showed the level of disarray within the LDP since it lost its absolute majority for the first time in 38 years in last Sunday's elections.

The heated attacks, verging at times on open revolt, against Mr Miyazawa, 73, and other party leaders came at a meeting in Tokyo of all LDP Diet (parliament) members. The meeting was called to discuss whom the party would put forward as prime ministerial candidate when the Diet convenes early next month.

But it quickly degenerated into open confrontation between two generations of LDP politicians: the young who are impatient for change and the old who want to keep things as they are. One young LDP member called Mr Miyazawa a war criminal - the bewildered Prime Minister only accentuated the generation gap by responding with a quotation from the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius.

In the past strong behind-the- scenes leadership by characters such as the former 'godfather' Shin Kanemaru would have ensured that such dissatisfaction would never have been openly aired at a party conference, to avoid embarrassing party leaders. But Mr Kanemaru, who was only yesterday being brought to court on charges of income tax evasion, has been excluded from the LDP since his arrest in March, and no strong leader has risen to take his place.

The LDP is vying with several new conservative parties to form a coalition government. Its future darkened even further yesterday when the leader of a party which holds the balance of power in the hung parliament indicated that he would try to form a coalition excluding the LDP.

'The only way to create a situation in which power changes hands . . . is to establish a non-LDP government,' said Morihiro Hosokawa, head of the Japan New Party, which won 35 seats in the elections and has been courted by both sides to form a coalition government.

Meanwhile, Mr Miyazawa told his party's meeting that the election was a tough, uphill battle for the LDP, and he was resigning to take his share of the blame. 'We lost our precious colleagues in the election and I decided to resign as president of the LDP as a result of profound consideration to take responsibility for these results.'

But as soon as he had finished speaking, a series of younger party members stood up to deliver stinging criticisms of the old party structure and the faction leaders, who are all in their late 60s or 70s. The LDP elders were abused for trying to carry on politics in the old factional mould, and for not waking up to the fact that they could no longer rely on automatically forming the next government.

'Prime minister Miyazawa is a Class C war criminal,' said Seiichi Ota, a 47-year-old Diet member from Fukuoka, echoing the classification of Japanese militarists in war crimes trials in Tokyo 47 years ago. 'And I demand that Class A and Class B war criminals also take responsibility,' he added, referring to the other leaders. 'The factions should be eliminated, and the people who are responsible for the LDP split should refrain from choosing the next president of the LDP.'

Mr Ota and others protested strongly at a plan announced by the party's secretary-general, Seiroku Kajiyama, 66, for a special committee representing each LDP faction to decide on the next LDP leader, and demanded instead an open vote of all the party's members. Mr Kajiyama eventually conceded the open vote, which is to be held within the next 10 days.

The Young Turks were also infuriated by the summary readmission to the LDP of Noboru Takeshita, the former prime minister who has been associated with each of the recent scandals that have shaken Japanese politics. Mr Takeshita ran as an independent in the election in order not to be an embarrassment to the LDP during the campaign, which constantly returned to the issue of political reform.

But yesterday, with little prior consultation, he was whisked back into the bosom of the party, claiming he had been 'purified'. 'It is a betrayal of the Japanese people for us to allow Takeshita to return to the LDP,' said Seichi Eto, a 46-year-old member from Oita.

Other young members said the party should learn from its defeat in the elections and realise that the voters wanted change. 'The problem with the LDP is that it is still struggling to hold on to power at all costs,' said Toshikatsu Matsuoka, 48, from Kumamoto. 'To have real power we must have the determination to sometimes go out of power.'

Mr Miyazawa's attempt to calm the meeting by quoting Confucius was met with an embarrassed silence.

'Legislators do not suffer confusion, righteous men do not worry and the courageous do not fear,' quoted Mr Miyazawa to a group of people who were full of fear, worry and confusion.

(Photograph omitted)