Awwal 15, 1432 H/Feb 18, 2011, SPA -- Japan's second-biggest opposition party has rejected a deal proposed by a ruling party executive in which unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan would quit in return for help in enacting a workable budget, the Asahi newspaper reported on Friday, according to Reuters. Speculation that Kan would have to quit or call a snap general election grew this week after 16 critics of his push for tax reforms to curb Japan's massive public said they wanted to leave the party's lower house caucus. The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) can pass the $1 trillion budget for the year from April 1 because it controls parliament's lower house. But to pass enabling bills, it must either woo enough opposition votes to gain a simple majority in the upper house or to secure a two-thirds lower house majority with which to override the upper chamber. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, asked about calls within and outside the DPJ for Kan to resign, told a news conference earlier that Kan's term as premier still has about two and a half more years to go. "The mission for him as a premier and as the party leader is to achieve as much as possible in his term," Edano said. Hopes of obtaining a two-thirds lower house majority were dealt a blow when the 16 lawmakers left, opening the possibility they would not support the budget-related bills. Support for Kan's government hit a fresh low at 17.8 percent in a media poll released on Thursday, as the struggling premier faces a widening rift in his party over the how and whether to reprimand a scandal-tainted powerbroker. The New Komeito, the second-biggest opposition party whose votes together with the ruling bloc's would be enough to clear the opposition-controlled upper house, is likely to vote against the budget-related bills, the Asahi said without citing a source. Kan is already Japan's fifth prime minister since 2006 when Junichiro Koizumi finished a five-year stint.
