The opposition Liberal Democratic and New Komeito parties are planning to submit by the end of the week a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government.
The joint move was confirmed on Monday during talks between the 2 parties' secretaries general and diet affairs chiefs.
LDP Secretary General Nobuteru Ishihara says party president Sadakazu Tanigaki will decide the timing of the motion, but that he would like to coordinate it with the New Komeito Party.
His New Komeito counterpart, Yoshihisa Inoue, has agreed to step up procedures within his party so that the motion can be submitted jointly.
Both sides agreed to grill Prime Minister Kan in the Diet on Tuesday and Wednesday over his response to the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
They also agreed to call on other opposition parties to join in the no-confidence motion.
President Tanigaki, in aspeech in the northern city of Aomori, said reconstruction of the regions damaged by the March 11th disaster will be slow under the Kan administration, and that it's time to show his party's readiness to take charge.
Meanwhile, executives of the ruling Democratic Party have agreed to deal harshly with party members who break ranks and vote in favor of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government.
DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada said on Monday the party will work in solidarity to defeat the motion.
He said lawmakers who boycott the voting in the Diet will also be dealt with.
Earlier on Monday, Okada met party Diet affairs chief, Jun Azumi, to discuss the party's response to lawmakers close to former party leader Ichiro Ozawa who are indicating they will support the motion.
They agreed to step up action against such moves.
DPJ deputy leader Kenji Yamaoka, who is close to Ozawa, told Shizuka Kamei, head of junior coalition partner the People's New Party, that a number of DPJ lawmakers may vote in favor of the motion, should it be submitted to the Diet.
Kamei criticized such an action, saying that Japan has just experienced a major natural disaster of an unprecedented scale, and that this is not a time to be thinking about replacing the prime minister.
Monday, May 30, 2011 19:28 +0900 (JST)