A year after disappearing from sight following hospitalization for a back injury, former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita maintains his reputation as a major behind-the-scenes political influence.

Members of the Liberal Democratic Party's biggest faction, which Takeshita once headed and is now led by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, have lined up to campaign for him in his Shimane Prefecture constituency to thwart an opposition candidate who threatens to storm the stronghold of local conservatives.

Takeshita, 76, represents "the pledge of union of the Obuchi faction. Without Takeshita, the faction could break up," said a legislator with another LDP faction.

Some local residents have been critical of Takeshita's decision to run in the Lower House elections, which must be held by October, citing his sickness and long absence from the Diet.

Some recall the election campaign fought for former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka after he collapsed in 1985, which coincided with Takeshita's launch of a group within what was then the Tanaka faction.

Last weekend, acting LDP Secretary General Hiromu Nonaka made his second visit to the Shimane No. 2 single-seat electoral district since Takeshita was hospitalized in early April 1999. He last visited in November.

Nonaka campaigned on Takeshita's behalf in eight locations and attended a rally attended by some 10,000 people.

Nonaka praised Takeshita, saying: "We cannot feel assured without listening to Mr. Takeshita's thoughts on where Japan should go. Mr. Takeshita's presence is significant just because he is present, whether he is in a hospital or at his home."

Other members of the ruling coalition who have visited the district since February include former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukushiro Nukaga. and Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, secretary general of New Komeito.

Takeshita's local backers had planned to confirm preparations for his election campaign by April, on the assumption that the Lower House would be dissolved before this July's Group of Eight summit in Okinawa Prefecture.

But behind the preparations is a sense of crisis within the Obuchi faction over the arrival of a promising rival candidate -- former Lower House member Atsushi Nishikori -- who is to be fielded by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Openly criticizing Takeshita's style of politics, Nishikori, 54, said: "Shimane is said to be the No. 1 prefecture in terms of per capita investment in public works projects. Japanese politicians have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to 'broker politics.' "

Nishikori and his election campaigners welcomed Nonaka's campaigning as "a good opportunity to show the differences between both candidates (Nishikori and Takeshita)."

In the previous Lower House poll in 1996, Nishikori won nearly 63,000 votes, roughly 23,000 votes fewer than Takeshita. , who claimed his 14th victory in the district.

With Takeshita's absence from the Diet for nearly a year being criticized even among his constituents, Nishikori is being urged to turn anti-Takeshita sentiment into votes for himself.

Obuchi recently appointed lawyer Kohei Nakabo, who had been Nishikori's chief backer, as special adviser to the prime minister -- a move believed in the Obuchi faction to have been taken with the upcoming election in mind.

After consultations with Nonaka and some others, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki -- once a secretary to Takeshita and currently head of the LDP's Shimane Prefectural Federation of Party Branches -- decided last autumn that the LDP would back Takeshita in a single-seat electoral district even if he does not appear in public.

Takeshita initially considered running for a proportional representation seat or resigning from politics in order to hand over his support organization to a successor, political sources said.

He suffered stomach pains in March last year while attending a ceremony to kick off campaigning for the re-election of the LDP-backed incumbent Shimane governor and was hospitalized April 5.

If Takeshita had stepped down when he fell ill, the hierarchy of the local conservative political machine could have collapsed, according to political sources.

An official of a group supporting Takeshita said it would be difficult for local people to simply abandon Takeshita. "Under the present situation in which social and industrial infrastructure has not been fully developed, we cannot help but rely on a person who is familiar with this territory."

Takeshita 's reputation as a behind-the-scenes political fixer will not fade easily, but he is reportedly barely able to walk now and his chief pleasure is in watching TV programs such as historical plays, sumo and Diet sessions.