Hashimoto unopposed

Tokyo - Buoyed by favourable public opinion polls and progress in his government's reform programme, the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, secured a second term as head of the ruling party yesterday, leaving him well placed to exercise that rare quality in this nation's politics - leadership. Despite the deeply factional nature of the Liberal Democratic Party, Hashimoto was a unanimous choice as party president, the first incumbent in 13 years to be re-elected unopposed.