Mr. Ichiro Ozawa's announcement of his offer to resign as head of the Democratic Party of Japan, which controls the Upper House together with other opposition forces, was too abrupt and bizarre. His behavior was irresponsible, especially in light of his party's strength in the Upper House. He had the power to influence the overall political situation of Japan. His party is in a position to become a ruling party if it wins the next general elections in the wake of its overwhelming victory in the July 29 Upper House election.
It is regrettable that Japan has seen abrupt and irresponsible moves by two political leaders within such a short interval this year. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's resignation announcement on Sept. 12 came just two days after his policy speech in the Diet.
It was a closed meeting Friday between Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Mr. Ozawa that paved the way for the latter's move to resign as leader of the No. 1 opposition party. In the meeting, Mr. Fukuda reportedly proposed that his Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito form a grand coalition with the DPJ. Mr. Ozawa is said to have been rather positive about the proposal, as indicated by his not rejecting Mr. Fukuda's proposal right away. In fact, Mr. Ozawa was heavily criticized by DPJ executives in a meeting held later the same day for not immediately turning down the grand coalition proposal. In this meeting, the DPJ decided to reject Mr. Fukuda's proposal.