Sunrise Party snubs Kan's offer to join ruling coalition

Monday 27th December, 02:19 PM JST

TOKYO —

The Sunrise Party of Japan decided Monday not to be part of the ruling coalition, rebuffing a recent offer made by Prime Minister Naoto Kan in his attempt to avoid legislative gridlock, lawmakers said.

Kan, who heads the Democratic Party of Japan, has called on the minor opposition party to join the two-party coalition as he struggles to find ways to ensure the smooth passage of the fiscal 2011 budget and related bills through the regular Diet session due to begin in January.

The coalition led by the DPJ controls the House of Representatives but it does not have the two-thirds majority required to override vetoes on bills imposed by the opposition-controlled House of Councillors.

‘‘We are not considering becoming part of the coalition,’’ Takeo Hiranuma, a co-leader of the Sunrise Party, said at a news conference after a meeting of all of its six lawmakers to discuss Kan’s offer.

Kan asked Kaoru Yosano, another head of the Sunrise Party, on Nov. 18 to have a member of the opposition party take a cabinet post, and the two met again on Dec 4.

DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada also proposed that the Sunrise Party begin talks on policy adjustments, with the aim of inviting it into the coalition, when he met with Yosano and Hiranuma last Wednesday.

Yosano, who was finance minister before the DPJ’s ascent to power in 2009, was seen to be positive about playing a role in Kan’s government.

But other Sunrise Party members were reluctant to accept the offer, saying that cooperating with Kan would not make any sense given that the party was created to prevent the DPJ from staying long in power.

‘‘We decided not to discuss the matter for a while out of concern that we may create excessive expectations’’ within the DPJ, Yosano told reporters.

Okada had sounded out Hiranuma on becoming the minister in charge of dealing with North Korea over its past abductions of Japanese citizens, according to some Sunrise Party lawmakers.

The Sunrise Party was formed in the spring of 2010 by former members of the Liberal Democratic Party, the largest opposition party.