Once mere pawns wielded by faction leaders, members today are more independent.

One thing certain about the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election which officially begins today is the further decline in influence of the various factions.

In the past, LDP factions were crucial in maintaining the party's iron grip on the reins of government. The factions were not only breeding grounds for alternative policy ideas, but also served to train future party leaders.

Perhaps no faction demonstrates how ineffectual they have become than the one led by Mitsuo Horiuchi, LDP General Council chairman.

The faction decided Friday not to back one of its own in the LDP presidential race but to let members vote as they please.

A Horiuchi faction executive explained the decision.

``Since this faction does not have a true owner, no one takes responsibility,'' the official said. ``That also means the faction will not split up.''

A confrontation developed between Horiuchi and former Secretary-General Makoto Koga over whether to support Koizumi's re-election. Koga wanted to place a faction member in the race.

Regardless, by allowing members to vote as they please, the faction cannot gain the leverage it would if it was part of the base that supported the winning candidate.

One factor behind the declining influence of LDP factions is the changes in the electoral system for the Lower House. Prior to the changes from the 1996 election when single-seat districts were established, the multi-seat system allowed several LDP candidates to run from each district. That in turn accelerated competition between LDP factions that wanted their member to pick up one of the three to six seats distributed to each district.

Under the new single-seat district system, the party leadership has gained the upper hand, deciding who the party candidate is in each district and how the party's campaign money is distributed.

The Horiuchi faction at one time faced the possibility of disintegrating when its previous head, former Secretary-General Koichi Kato, tried to take on then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. However, the faction was kept together with the exception of a few who sided with Kato because of the authority wielded by Koga who was party secretary-general at the time.

It is ironic Koga's attempt to field a candidate was blocked by younger faction members who want Koizumi to lead the party in the Lower House election expected in the fall.

The ability of factions to present alternate candidates for party president and policy positions has also diminished.

While former policy chief Shizuka Kamei heightened unity within the faction he co-heads through his bid for the LDP presidency, the anti-Koizumi forces have been unable to put together a policy platform that would unite them in their opposition to Koizumi.

For example, the positions of the various characters in the LDP presidential race differ on the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.

Although Kamei opposes the move, many within his faction are in favor of an expanded SDF role. Former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, another candidate in the presidential race, likewise supports the SDF dispatch.

Another former foreign minister, Yohei Kono, had at one time been considered a possible unity candidate by the anti-Koizumi forces. While he has said specifically that he is opposed to the dispatch of the SDF troops as well as Koizumi's economic policy, Kono on Friday came out and expressed his support for Koizumi's re-election.

The group that acted most like a traditional LDP faction in the run-up to the presidential campaign was the Upper House bloc within the Hashimoto faction.

Mikio Aoki, an influential member of the faction and secretary-general of the LDP's Upper House caucus, backed Koizumi's re-election. Most Upper House members of the Hashimoto faction said they would go along with Aoki's decision, much in the way faction members of the past obediently followed the decisions made by faction heads in the past.

Like those faction heads, Aoki's influence stems from his say in personnel matters. He told Koizumi that support for his re-election was predicated on a wholesale removal of the non-politicians in his Cabinet after the presidential election. Aoki likely will want some of those non-politicians replaced by Upper House members whom he would nominate for the Cabinet.

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