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3RD LD: Kan, Ozawa to face off in DPJ presidential election+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 5_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING) Two veteran lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan -- Ichiro Ozawa and Naoto Kan -- will face off in Friday's election to pick its new president as they separately announced their candidacies for the presidential race. The election is being called because current leader Seiji Maehara is stepping down over a scandal involving a fake e-mail message cited in a DPJ attack on a senior Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker. Ozawa, 63, is a former party vice president while Kan, 59, is a two-time party president. A third candidate may emerge. Yoshinori Suematsu, the party's International Department chief, expressed his readiness to run at a news conference in the morning, though he is struggling to gather endorsement from enough DPJ lawmakers, according to party sources. Both Ozawa and Kan are expected to present their views on policy and ways to shape up the party, which has been shaken by a series of leadership changes the past few years. The new DPJ leader will complete the remainder of Maehara's one-year term through September. |