Aso draws support in Japanese leadership race

TOKYO (Reuters) - Outspoken former Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso is the top choice of voters and of around half of the ruling party's branches to replace Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who quit suddenly this week, media polls showed on Wednesday.

Aso, the frontrunner to take power, favors increased government spending to help avoid a looming recession although this worries some in the ruling party who fear his policies could stall efforts to cut Japan's sky-high public debt.

That, and worries over his history of gaffes, has fuelled speculation that others may also run in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership race.

A survey published by Kyodo news agency on Wednesday found 35.3 percent of respondents favored Aso, 67, as the country's next LDP leader, making him the most popular candidate. Another poll over the weekend, before Fukuda quit, also had him as top choice.

Of 47 LDP party chapters, 23 said they would back Aso, the Asahi newspaper said, with supporters seeing him as the best candidate to lead the party to victory in an election due within a year. Most other branches were undecided.

The LDP's branches, along with its lawmakers, will vote for a new party leader on September 22 to replace the unpopular Fukuda, who resigned on Monday.

Aso, currently the LDP's second-ranking official, has yet to formally announce a bid for the leadership but the comic book fan and former Olympic sharpshooter has said he is a suitable candidate to carry on Fukuda's policies.

It would be his fourth bid for the leadership, including a loss to Fukuda in a leadership election last year, despite being the initial favorite then too.

"There is no mood to welcome 'party leader Aso' with open arms," the conservative Sankei newspaper said.

A potential contender is Yuriko Koike, who was briefly last year the country's first female defense minister and is backed by a former LDP secretary-general who favors fiscal reforms.

"I have been contacting people," she told reporters. "You can't play baseball alone."

Aso has said Japan could put off its goal of balancing the budget within the next few years, despite public debt of around 1-½ times GDP, the highest among big industrialized countries.

In foreign policy, he has offended Japan's Asian neighbors in the past, including the two Koreas with a comment in 2003 that was seen as praising Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the peninsula.

The new LDP leader elected this month is assured the Japanese premiership by virtue of the party's grip on parliament, which is expected to convene shortly after the LDP presidential race to elect a successor to Fukuda.

The LDP, along with its junior coalition partner the New Komeito party, is seeking to rebuild support ahead of a lower house election that the Sankei said could take place as early as October 26.

Toshiko Hamayotsu, a pivotal figure in New Komeito, which is vital for the coalition to keep its two-thirds majority in parliament's powerful lower house, backed Aso on Tuesday.

Analysts have said the next prime minister could call an election soon after taking office to make the most of any boost in public ratings, which sagged under Fukuda.

Going to the polls might also gain the coalition a mandate to resolve the deadlock in parliament, where the opposition controls the upper house and can stall legislation.

The Kyodo poll showed 38.4 percent of respondents would vote for the LDP in the next election, ahead of 34.9 who said they would vote for the main opposition Democratic Party.

But analysts said whoever succeeds Fukuda would face the same headaches, with policy-making blocked by the divided parliament.

A survey of 80 corporate leaders by the Nikkei business daily showed 70 percent said Fukuda's resignation would have a negative effect on the economic outlook and policies.

Nearly 60 percent in the same survey said an early election should be called by the start of next year.

Popular female lawmaker and consumer affairs minister Seiko Noda told reporters she would not stand, but media said former administrative reform minister Nobuteru Ishihara, son of outspoken Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, might seek the job.

(Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds, Editing by Rodney Joyce and Michael Watson)