Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, pictured in this March 17 file photo, was taken to a Tokyo hospital Sunday where he is currently in a coma. (Eriko Sugita - Reuters) E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 3, 2000; 11:52 AM

TOKYO, April 3 – Political kingmakers today were preparing to choose a successor to Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who is in a coma and on a respirator after he was hospitalized early Sunday with a stroke.

With unusual swiftness, members of Obuchi's political party have concluded that the prime minister is unlikely to resume his work and his cabinet secretary, Mikio Aoki, should not remain as acting premier, according to reports and political observers here.

And they apparently have rejected the option of calling elections now, preferring to appoint a new prime minister who will serve until the Oct. 19 deadline for the vote.

Speculation focuses on Yoshiro Mori, now the secretary-general of Obuchi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Authorities have released few details about Obuchi's condition, only belatedly confirming this afternoon that the 62-year-old prime minister had been in a coma and on a respirator since Sunday evening.

Hospital officials have refused to comment on the condition of Obuchi, other than to acknowledge he is in the intensive care unit. Aoki, who also is Obuchi's political lieutenant, said today that Obuchi lapsed into a coma at 9:50 p.m. Sunday.

"The critical moment can arrive at any time," Aoki said today.

Even before the public was fully aware of Obuchi's condition, party officials were jockeying for position, according to political insiders.

"Now we will give a chance to all the politicians to say nice words that they are praying for his recovery. But it's just a ceremony," said Takayoshi Miyagawa, a political analyst. "From tonight, the power struggle has started to succeed him."

Aoki said Obuchi had appointed him acting prime minister before he went into a coma. But lacking an official resignation from Obuchi, the cabinet would have to dissolve itself to permit the ruling party to pick a new prime minister.

The replacement is not anticipated to have an immediately noticeable effect on Japanese policies. Because major policies are often hammered out through negotiations between the coalition parties, and because Japanese politics often operates on the basis of consensus, most domestic, economic and foreign policies will continue, according to analysts.

"I don't think you will see any basic difference" in economic policy, said Seiichi Takarabe, an economic analyst.

Nor are voters likely to see a dramatic change in personal style if Obuchi is replaced by another LDP party regular, according to analyst Taro Yayama.

"I don't think the public sees any difference in the politicians" in the party, he said.

Those mentioned as possible replacements for Obuchi include Mori, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, and Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. Mori is considered a leading candidate because of his connections with the two other parties that are the coalition partners of the LDP.

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