20/03 Kan hopes to recruit opposition to grand coalition

2011/03/20

Prime Minister Naoto Kan (The Asahi Shimbun)

Aiming to build a "crisis-management government," Prime Minister Naoto Kan hopes to add three more seats to his Cabinet and fill all or part of them with opposition lawmakers, sources said.

The unusual step would create an administration better able to tackle the daunting tasks of bringing relief to quake victims, restoring infrastructure and containing the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Kan told a news conference Friday his coalition team has opened a dialogue with opposition parties on "how to strengthen the Cabinet and its crisis response."

Aside from these aims, it appears Kan also intends to hold the opposition camp accountable should the government stumble in its handling the triple-barreled quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

At Kan's instruction, Katsuya Okada, secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Japan, proposed to raise the number of Cabinet seats to 20, up from 17, at Friday's meeting of government and ruling and opposition parties on earthquake response.

He also proposed revising laws to increase the number of special advisers to the prime minister, senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries at the Cabinet Office.

After revising related laws on the Cabinet in the current Diet session, Kan would ask opposition party members to join the Cabinet. The idea could lead to a grand coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito.

"Establishing a crisis-management Cabinet will open the doors to reshuffling the coalition framework to build a stable administration," said a senior DPJ Upper House member.

Big-name opposition members, while likely to approve the increase in Cabinet members, would be wary of sharing responsibility for any missteps by the government in its crisis efforts.

During a phone conversation Saturday, Kan asked LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki to join the Cabinet as vice prime minister and minister in charge of restoration from the earthquake. At an executive meeting later, the LDP decided to reject the offer.

Some LDP members called the request no more than a ploy to share the blame for mishandling the quake crisis with the opposition.

A New Komeito executive also said his party has no plan to send members to Kan's Cabinet.

But one senior LDP member acknowledged that rejecting the government's offer to cooperate during this unprecedented national crisis could arouse public wrath.