Japan's main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Ichiro Ozawa, a leading candidate for the next premier, said he will not step down after his secretary was indicted Tuesday afternoon over a fund-raising scandal.
But the prospect for his party to win the next general election which has to be held by fall has been marred severely by the incident.
Ozawa told a press conference Tuesday evening that he "sincerely apologize for causing concerns and inconvenience to people" and he "would like to continue making efforts to live up to people's expectations."
"Achieving a power shift and toppling the coalition government of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, bringing about politics that will stand on the side of people, is my final task as a politician," he said.
However, political observers believed the DPJ will have a tough time to unite behind a scandal-tainted leader.
Some DPJ lawmakers had been hoping Ozawa would voluntary resign from the post he has held since April 2006.
Katsuhiko Yokomitsu, a lawmaker was quoted by Japanese media assaying that "the people's expectations of the DPJ are vanishing. It will benefit the party as well as the people to face the next lower house election with a newborn DPJ".
Takanori Okubo, the secretary of Ichiro Ozawa who also serves as chief accountant of Ozawa's political body, "Rikuzankai", was indicted by Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office for accepting illegal donation from Nishimatsu Construction Co.
Investigative sources said Nishimatsu started donations to Ozawa's camp since 1995. Deals were apparently made around that time so that Nishimatsu would donate roughly 25 million yen (255,000 dollars) every year to the Ozawa camp, resulting in some 300 million yen (3.06 million dollars) in total donations over more than a decade.
Under Japanese law, corporate donations, except for political parties or their political fund-managing organizations, are prohibited.
Prior to the fund-raising scandal, DPJ-led opposition have been aggressively blocking or delaying a number of key government-backed bills in the Upper House, where they control the majority seats.
Japanese analysts said the scandal may discourage the DPJ from staying on the offensive in the Diet, fearing a backlash from already angry voters.
Recent public opinion polls showed the popularity of DPJ and Ozawa had dropped sharply, while the unfavored Prime Minister's popularity was on the rise.
Local media reports also suggested that not only Okubo but Ozawa himself may have served as go-betweens for Nishimatsu and another major construction company to win bids on public construction projects in Ozawa's home prefecture.
The possibility to replace Ozawa still lingers if any new information, harmful enough to damage DPJ, emerges in the process of investigation. Whether the DPJ has a chance to end the nearly half-century unbroken rule of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) remains a question mark.
(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2009)