Yukio Hatoyama will likely remain leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan because the only other contender for the post apparently lacks sufficient backers to file his candidacy today, party sources said Sunday.

Takashi Kawamura, the party's policy vice chief, is reportedly having trouble lining up the 20 supporters he needs to run in the party leadership race. Hatoyama's continued leadership will become a certainty if nobody else files by the 4 p.m. today deadline for applications.

Hatoyama's leadership is expected to be endorsed at a party convention Sept. 9.

Under party rules, the new DPJ leader will serve for two years until September 2002.

For the moment, the DPJ's main goal is to prevent the three-party ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party from gaining a majority in next summer's House of Councilors election.

Hatoyama, who has gained the support of 123 DPJ lawmakers of various political stripes, will immediately embark on selecting the party's executive officers, the sources said. Major posts are expected to be filled within a week.

The DPJ's younger Diet members, however, are calling for a greater share of portfolios, saying that 64-year-old former Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata should no longer serve as secretary general, a post he has held since April 1998.

On Sept. 25, 1999, Hatoyama was elected leader of the DPJ, which he helped found, beating incumbent head Naoto Kan and Takahiro Yokomichi, chief of the party's executive council and former governor of Hokkaido.