DPJ to hold vote to pick Ozawa's successor on Sat., Okada may run+

TOKYO, May 12 Kyodo -
Main opposition Democratic Party of Japan Vice President Katsuya Okada is
considering running in the party's election to pick successor to President
Ichiro Ozawa as party executives decided Tuesday to hold a vote Saturday to
pick a new leader.

The DPJ approved the resignation of the leader, who said Monday that he would
step down in the face of waning popularity amid a political fund scandal. Along
with Okada, DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama is emerging as a possible
successor.
Expectations are growing among younger party members that former DPJ chief
Okada, untainted by scandal, may lead the party into the next House of
Representatives election.
Okada told reporters Tuesday he is ''contemplating'' whether to run in the
party's election to pick Ozawa's successor, adding that he has yet to reach a
conclusion.
But sources close to him have said that Okada is positively considering filing
candidacy in the election.
The party plans to make an official decision on the schedule of the election to
choose Ozawa's successor Tuesday afternoon, party members said.
Voting will be held by DPJ parliamentarians, they said.
Hatoyama, who has served as a close aide to Ozawa and has expressed intention
to step down as secretary general, has not revealed his intentions, but DPJ
members supporting him are expected to urge him to throw his hat into the ring.
At executives meetings Tuesday, Ozawa said, ''I believe that we can gain
people's understanding if we unite to realize'' a regime change, according to
DPJ lawmaker Tenzo Okumura.
''I am determined to fight out with all my efforts for Japan and people in
order to make the establishment of parliamentary democracy and the two-party
system,'' Ozawa was quoted as saying.
Ozawa had been outscoring Prime Minister Taro Aso as the public's preference
for next prime minister and the DPJ was seen as having a good shot at ending
the almost unbroken rule of the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party in the
next general election that must be held by the fall.
But Aso was preferred to Ozawa as the nation's leader in the latest Kyodo News
poll and public calls had been growing for Ozawa to resign as DPJ chief.
Ozawa said Monday he will step down to ensure ''party unity,'' admitting that
he considered calls from within his party that he should resign following the
indictment of his secretary for alleged receipt of illegal donations.
Ozawa's secretary, Takanori Okubo, was indicted March 24 for receiving 35
million yen in donations from scandal-tainted Nishimatsu Construction Co. in
violation of the political funds control law.
==Kyodo