The Democratic Party of Japan filed a complaint with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on Friday against Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki for allegedly forging public documents and illegally naming himself acting prime minister.

The complaint, filed by DPJ policy chief Naoto Kan and Satsuki Eda, head of the party's investigation team, urges prosecutors to look into the case. It claims that former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was incapable of ordering Aoki to take over after he collapsed April 2.

Speaking at a regular press conference on Friday, Aoki reiterated that the process of his appointment was legitimate. He said he will look into the complaint and consider what steps to take.

Aoki named himself acting prime minister on April 3 after saying Obuchi asked him to do so. Doctors later expressed doubt that Obuchi could have made such an order in his post-stroke state.

According to the complaint, Aoki forged public documents when he compiled the notification of his appointment as acting prime minister.

The document was submitted to the Upper House president and the Lower House speaker on April 3.

After filing the complaint, Kan said Aoki's unclear and possibly illegal appointment to the nation's top political post was a possible future threat to democracy.

Realignment likely

Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa on Friday predicted a large-scale realignment will occur among Japan's political forces after the next general election.

Ozawa made the prediction in an article contributed to the next edition of monthly business magazine President, political sources said Friday.

Both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan "will split up," Ozawa says in the article, which will appear in the June edition of the magazine to hit newsstands Monday, they said.

The realignment will take place particularly among conservative forces, he says, referring to attempts by the Liberal Party and other conservative groups to seize power. He predicted that the ruling bloc will not be able to win a majority in the House of Representatives general election, scheduled for June 25.

Regarding his party's election prospects, Ozawa says the Liberal Party aims to take at least 50 of the 480 Lower House seats. The party currently holds 19 of 500 seats. The number is being reduced with the election.

In the article he also criticizes Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's tripartite coalition consisting of the LDP, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party for being an unprincipled alliance merely bent on securing a majority in Parliament. The Liberal Party left the coalition on April 1 because the LDP did not take its policy accords seriously, Ozawa says.

Shortly after the Liberal Party left the coalition, then Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke April 2, with Mori taking over as prime minister April 5. Obuchi died Sunday.