The administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will not last long unless he shifts to a policy of aggressive spending to shore up the economy in the near future, says a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker openly critical of Koizumi's reform initiatives.

"If the Koizumi Cabinet keeps running on the wrong track, we will have to have second thoughts" about supporting the prime minister, said Toshikatsu Matsuoka, leader of an anti-Koizumi group of LDP lawmakers set up last month. "That would be in the best interests of the public."

The greatest achievement of the popular prime minister and LDP chief in his first eight months in office, according to Matsuoka, is that he has led the party to a resounding victory in the Upper House election in July.

"I would give 150 points to Koizumi for winning a victory for the LDP in the Upper House election, but I would also give him minus 100 points for causing the economy to deteriorate," Matsuoka said.

He indicated that Koizumi will lose public support, and thus the power to remain at the helm, if the economy deteriorates further next year.

Matsuoka, a native of Kumamoto Prefecture, criticized the 81.23 trillion yen budget for fiscal 2002 approved by the Cabinet on Monday, saying it lacks sufficient measures to tackle the nation's serious unemployment problems.

The budget, designed to promote Koizumi's structural reform agenda, slashed spending on public works construction projects and subsidies to government-affiliated corporations.

"If the prime minister leaves the economic situation as is, further deflation and recession is inevitable," Matsuoka said.

The former farm ministry bureaucrat and his group have urged the government to inspect the financial health of the nation's banks and inject 15 trillion yen in taxpayers' money to help them write off nonperforming loans.

The group is also calling for delaying the imposition of a 10 million yen "payoff" limit on government guarantees on each deposit account in the event that a bank goes bankrupt. The government has rejected such calls because another delay could aggravate concerns over the health of Japan's financial sector.

If the government introduces the system in April 2002, as scheduled, small and midsize financial organizations and their clients could go bankrupt, said Matsuoka, a member of an LDP faction led by the party's former policy chief Shizuka Kamei.

"Although the initial goal may have been for the patient to leave hospital, we have to think again if the patient's medical condition gets worse," he said. "What Koizumi is trying to do is to discharge the patient just because he promised he would do so."

Only after the bad loans are disposed of can banks invest in new industries, Matsuoka said, emphasizing that this is the kind of structural reform Japan needs.

Commenting on the Koizumi Cabinet's high public support rate, Matsuoka suggested that more people are becoming passive supporters who do not have a clear reason for their support of the prime minister.

"At first, the public was actively supporting Koizumi," he said. "But now, people have no choice but to support him although he has achieved almost nothing to put the economy on a recovery path."

Matsuoka warned that Koizumi's top-down style of decision-making -- often ignoring traditional procedures within the party -- may lead to "self-righteousness or despotism."

"A real leader should be able to wrap up various opinions within the group. That is what democracy is all about," he said.

Matsuoka indicated that he does not care if Koizumi calls him and other LDP lawmakers opposing the reform initiatives "resistance forces."

"We will continue to make proposals to Koizumi even if we are labeled the 'bad guys.' "