General election must be 'revolutionary' race: Hatoyama+

TOKYO, July 21 Kyodo -
The upcoming general election must be a ''revolutionary'' race that terminates
''bureaucrat-led politics,'' Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the main opposition
Democratic Party of Japan, said Tuesday, expressing his determination to
achieve a change of government.

''It must be a revolutionary general election to put an end to bureaucrat-led
politics and to make the public proactive,'' Hatoyama told a general meeting of
DPJ lawmakers. ''We are determined to face it with a sense of historical
mission.''
Naoto Kan, acting DPJ president, said, ''Let's get together so every candidate
in the single-seat constituencies can win.''
Separately, Akira Nagatsuma, the DPJ's acting policy chief, told reporters
after the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso endorsed Aso's decision earlier in
the day to dissolve the House of Representatives, ''The longest and hottest
summer in Japan has just started...we will be stubbornly honest in making an
appeal based on our manifesto.''
Meanwhile, Japanese Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii told JCP lawmakers, ''We
need to terminate the distressed government of the Liberal Democratic Party and
the New Komeito party in the long-awaited lower house election.''
At a press conference, Shii suggested it is likely that his party's lawmakers
may vote for the DPJ's Hatoyama in Diet nomination for prime minister following
the general election, saying, ''It may well be that we vote for the DPJ in the
runoff so as not to allow the LDP and the New Komeito to remain in power.''
Shii added, however, his party needs to talk with the DPJ side before voting
for Hatoyama to confirm that the DPJ will not go ahead with a consumption tax
hike and constitutional amendment, both of which the JCP opposes.
Another opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, is eyeing creating a
coalition with the DPJ following the general election. Its leader Mizuho
Fukushima said, ''We, the SDP, are needed as a party to protect public lives at
a time of introducing a new government.''
Watanuki Tamisuke, who heads the People's New Party, said the significance of
the upcoming election is in being a verdict on the politics of former Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who won a landslide victory for the ruling
coalition in the 2005 race, and his successors.
==Kyodo