Japan PM allies seek to rein in party ahead of poll

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso's allies called for unity in the fractious ruling party on Tuesday in an effort to head off moves to oust the unpopular leader ahead of a general election the ruling bloc looks set to lose.

Polls show the opposition Democratic Party leading Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the run-up to a parliamentary election that must be held by October, boosting the chance for an end to more than five decades of almost unbroken rule by the business-friendly ruling party.

It was unclear, however, whether LDP critics of Aso, whose support among voters has fallen below 20 percent in some polls, would gain enough momentum to replace him before an election that many expect in August.

A Democratic win would increase the likelihood of a breakthrough in a parliamentary stalemate that has foiled policy implementation as Japan struggles with recession.

"They are in panic mode," said Gerry Curtis, a political science professor at New York's Columbia University, noting that recent internal LDP surveys suggest the party might only win 165 seats in parliament's 480-member lower house.

The party now holds 303 seats and its junior partner has 31, giving them a two-thirds majority that allows them to enact laws rejected by the opposition-controlled upper chamber, although doing so is time-consuming.

"What's hurting the LDP's support rating are moves showing how lawmakers in the party are wavering," said a close Aso ally, Akira Amari, the minister for administrative reform. "We need to make clear the LDP will overcome difficulties and do politics for the Japanese people by being united," he told a news conference.

Senior LDP executive Takashi Sasagawa rejected calls to pick a new party leader soon. "There is no time and this would merely cause mistrust," he told reporters.

Japan has had three premiers since Junichiro Koizumi led the LDP to a huge election victory in 2005, with Aso's two predecessors both quitting after a year in the face of the deadlocked parliament and sinking support rates.

The ruling party infighting comes as Japan struggles to emerge from its worst recession in 60 years. The jobless rate hit a 5-1/2-year high in May and job availability sank to record low.

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NHK public TV reported that Aso, 68, was considering changing the top party leadership line-up and some cabinet members on July 2, a move aimed at boosting the LDP's ratings, but Sasagawa said there was no such plan.

Growing fears of a big defeat are giving added impetus to oust-Aso moves. At least two groups of LDP lawmakers critical of the prime minister met on Monday evening.

"We should move forward the party leadership race and the winner should be the 'face' (of the LDP)," former chief cabinet secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters after a meeting of younger lawmakers at a central Tokyo restaurant.

Calls for Aso to step down were echoed at a separate meeting of around 20 lawmakers including Koizumi, who was quoted by media as saying the LDP should prepare for possible defeat.

"The long reign of an LDP government is unprecedented in a democracy," the Sankei newspaper quoted him as saying.

"It would be OK if we became an opposition party."

A ruling bloc loss in a closely watched election for the governor of Shizuoka in central Japan in Sunday would likely boost calls for Aso to quit, but many say a Tokyo Metropolitan Assemble election on July 12 holds the real key to his fate.

If the LDP manages to hold its losses to a minimum in Tokyo, Aso may be able to hang on and call an election for August.

If the LDP does poorly, moves to oust him will intensify. But there is no guarantee that doing so would rescue the LDP.

"A lot of people are quietly angry," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. "They have no expectation that the Democrats will do tremendously well, but at the same time, they have had enough of the LDP."

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)