Sixteen Democratic Party of Japan members of the Lower House on Thursday threatened to leave the DPJ's parliamentary group in the chamber. The lawmakers, supporters of former party chief Ichiro Ozawa, submitted a written statement of their intent to the DPJ, but they say that they won't leave the party itself. Still, their move could devastate the ruling party, which lacks the two-thirds Lower House majority needed to override votes by the opposition-controlled Upper House.
A factor that apparently led to their rebellion is the DPJ leadership's move to suspend the party membership of Mr. Ozawa over a funds reporting scandal. More important, though, they are protesting against Prime Minister Naoto Kan's lack of enthusiasm in making good on the DPJ's manifesto for the 2009 Lower House election, which brought the party to power.
Given the difficult financial conditions, it is clear that the party cannot implement all the election pledges. Some of the pledges are not well thought out. But Mr. Kan clearly has failed to show a strong will in translating into action the DPJ's slogan "People's lives come first." In fact, he dropped the slogan from the party manifesto for the July Upper House election.