Japanese PM Refuses to Quit Despite Growing Calls

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Monday refused to step down, despite his plunging popularity and growing calls from the ruling coalition for his resignation, saying he wants to get the fiscal 2001 budget through the Diet (parliament).

"I hope the Diet will pass the budget by any means. I would like to fulfill my responsibility to carry out educational reform and IT (informational technology) reform," Mori told a House of Representatives Budget Committee session.

Earlier Monday, a senior official of the New Komeito, one of Japan's three ruling coalition parties, suggested in an interview with Kyodo News that Mori's resignation now appears inevitable.

"The tide has turned completely. He should consider an honorable retreat," the official, who asked not to be named, told the Japanese news agency.

The New Komeito is a key partner in the coalition led by Mori's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The other coalition member is the New Conservative Party.

Also on Monday, LDP Election Bureau Director General Muneo Suzuki said during a meeting of party supporters in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture, that Mori should "make a decision for the sake of Japan," according to Kyodo.

Calls within the ruling camp for Mori to step down have intensified following his plunging popularity due to a number of verbal gaffes and scandals involving himself and his party as well as the slow economy.

Japan's leading newspaper the Asahi Shimbun said Monday that public support for Mori's cabinet has plummeted to 9 percent, down 10 percentage points from the previous survey in January, and the lowest since the cabinet was launched in April last year.

Mori has been under fire for his handling of a fatal collision between a US Navy submarine and a Japanese fisheries training ship off Hawaii on February 9.

Public criticism of Mori intensified following the sinking of the ship as he continued to play golf for about two hours after being informed of the accident.






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