Japan's Yosano urges coalition but sees slim chance

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said on Thursday the country's triple disasters provided an opportunity to create a coalition that would break a deadlock in parliament, but added that the chances of that happening were at present small.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) controls parliament's lower house but needs opposition help to pass bills in the upper chamber, where it lacks a majority.

"This crisis provides a chance to create a coalition government. There is rising momentum towards a coalition. I think the Japanese people want quick decisions and strong leadership. Our current political structure isn't satisfying the people," said Yosano, who was appointed by Kan in January after leaving a small opposition party.

"I think some form of a coalition government is very much needed. But the chance of a coalition is very small, unless politicians recognise that parts of the political system are unsatisfactory," he added.

Kan asked the leader of the now main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Sadakazu Tanigaki, to join his cabinet after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a nuclear crisis at a power plant in northeast Japan.

But Tanigaki rejected the request and a fragile post-quake political truce has broken down, with opposition parties and some within the ruling DPJ calling for Kan to resign over what they consider his inept response to the disaster.

Opinion polls show a majority of voters want Kan to go, but not before the radiation crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is contained, a process likely to take until the end of the year or longer.

The plant's reactor cooling systems were knocked out by the tsunami.

Kan's resignation could make a coalition more likely, but he is not expected to quit easily.

Yosano, 72, a fiscal hawk who was a lawmaker in the LDP before bolting to start a tiny opposition party after the LDP was ousted from power in 2009, also said both main parties agreed on the need for a sales tax rise to fund the rising social welfare costs of Japan's fast-ageing society.

(Reporting by Stanley White; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Michael Watson)