Though the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) finally struck a deal Wednesday with its two minor allies over a coalition government following week-long negotiations, the three remain far apart on certain crucial issues. With a week away from the launch of a tripartite cabinet, uncertainties hang on as to where the new coalition administration heads for.

Coalition in need

On Aug. 30, the DPJ garnered 308 of the 480 seats in the historic House of Representatives election, putting an end to more than 50 years of almost uninterrupted rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). With an absolute majority in the more powerful lower house, the DPJ is sure to become the new ruling party.

Cooperation with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the People's New Party (PNP) to form a coalition, however, become a pressing task for the DPJ as it is still 12 seats short of holding two-thirds of the lower house that would have a final say to pass bills.

In addition, the DPJ commands less than half of the seats in the upper house, which could block a bill. A 60-day determent until a revote for the bill to pass in the lower house will greatly hinder the government from implementing its policies.

In view of the headaches the LDP's ruling bloc has suffered from a divided Diet, DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama first phoned SDP chief Mizuho Fukushima last week to discuss a possible coalition administration.

Rifts over foreign and security policies

The long-drawn-out negotiations over a tripartite coalition highlighted the deep rifts among the three as the DPJ wishes to dominate the new administration on the basis of its popularity with the voters while the SDP and the PNP, taking advantage of the DPJ's shortfall in the upper house, hope to make their voices clearly heard in the coalition.

The week-long haggles centered on foreign and national security issues. The leftist SDP, which upholds Japan's war-renouncing Constitution, opposes any overseas deployment of the Self-Defense Forces and demands that the envisaged coalition administration end the MSDF refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and reexamine the planned redeployment of the facilities of the US Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to scale down the heavy US military presence there.

And the PNP wants to reverse the postal privatization initiated by the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc.

During their talks, the three sides concurred in the most disputed issue concerning the US military presence in Japan.

"We will propose amending the Japan-US Status of Forces agreement, and will consider revising the planned realignment of US forces in Japan, as well as reviewing the nature of US bases in Japan," DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada read out the exact wording.

The pact was finally concluded as the DPJ made the uttermost concessions within the frame of its "manifesto" and the SDP and the PNP retracted some of their proposed policies.