Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama resigns amid Okinawa row

[BAK]

Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama resigns amid Okinawa row

Page last updated at 1:55 GMT, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 2:55 UK

BBC News Online

Yukio Hatoyama had been in power for just eight months

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has announced his resignation.
The move comes as his ruling party struggles to revive its chances in an election expected in July.

Mr Hatoyama has been under pressure after failing to fulfil an election pledge to move a controversial US base from the island of Okinawa.

He has been in power for just eight months, but polls suggest he has been losing popularity in recent months.

There have been questions about Mr Hatoyama's leadership for months, the BBC's Roland Buerk reports from Tokyo.

But pressure on him intensified after Japan issued a joint statement with the US last week agreeing to keep an unpopular American air base on the southern island of Okinawa, our correspondent says.

That broke a pledge the prime minister had made to move it off the island, or even out of Japan, during the campaign for last year's election.

That election, in which his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a landslide victory, was only the second time since World War II that the country's Liberal Democratic Party had not retained power.

Over the weekend, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) left the governing coalition because of the issue.

 

[Ab-Titchaz]

This is what politics is about. The man picks up a populist idea and runs with it kisha akishapata
mamlaka, the reality sets in.....U cant do nothing about that base unless the Americans themselves
want to move.

Geopolitics can be a mother!!!

 

[Masikini_Jeuri]

What patriotism anyway! If you look on the other side of the coin !

Wakwetu sijui watafikia lini walau robo ya hawa Jamaa?:yuck: :confused2:

 

[Fredwash]

Being honest and sometimes pay for the mistakes u didnt even commit (ukubwa jalala) is what defines leadership in the other way... BE RESPONSIBLE FOR UR SHORTCOMINGS

Japan's prime minister announces resignation (this is wat we call leadership..)
source : courtesy of CNN int.
A Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced Wednesday he will resign after eight months in power. "I'm going to step down," Hatoyama declared in a live broadcast on Japanese television NHK, while addressing party members of both the upper and lower houses of the Diet, Japan's parliament.

"I have had many shortcomings, I have been allowed to lead all of you for the past eight months to today. I am extremely grateful for having been given this opportunity," he said.
Eight months ago, Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan won a sweeping victory, an outcome hailed by many as a revolution in Japanese politics.


With promises of a cleaner government, Hatoyama worked to shift the political dynamics in Japan by taking away power from the bureaucrats and granting more power to politicians and local governments.
In his first speech as Japan's 92nd prime minister, Hatoyama made promises that he would conduct a clean and transparent government, launching a task force to monitor government spending.
But soon afterwards, allegations of illegal campaign financing tarnished his administration's image. Some of his cabinet members were investigated for corruption.

His approval rating took further hits over his failed promise to move a major U.S. Marine base off Okinawa to ease the burden of the island, which hosts the majority of the United States military presence in Japan. Earlier this month, calling his decision "heartbreaking," he announced that the base would remain on Okinawa, although relocated to a different part of the island.

Hatoyama's critics claimed he gave in to U.S. pressure, and his government coalition broke up.
Hatoyama said that while he did lose public trust, he hopes future generations will remember his legacy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have often been dubbed as an alien and how I understand this is that I see not current Japan but always try to see future Japan," he said.

"Local government, local communities should be the main actors," said Hatoyama.
"In five or ten years people of Japan will understand what I am talking about."
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place in July.

The DPJ will now elect a new leader of the party -- most likely on Friday -- who will be in line to be the next prime minister of Japan.

Some time early next week, Hatoyama will dissolve his cabinet in the morning and the new party leader will stand for election as new prime minister by both upper and lower houses of parliament.




I dont see this to happen in HERE any near soon...... not with those a bunch of Conspiracy monsters on power