Yukio Hatoyama Stepping Down As Japan's Prime Minister

[FSTargetDrone]

NYT:

Prime Minister of Japan Tells Nation He Plans to Quit
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: June 1, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea — Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of Japan, who swept into power last year with bold promises to revamp the country but then faltered over broken campaign pledges to remove an American base from Okinawa, announced Wednesday that he would step down.

Mr. Hatoyama had faced growing pressure to quit, just eight months after taking office, amid criticism that he had squandered a historic electoral mandate to change Japan’s sclerotic postwar political order.

Since taking office in September, he had come to be seen as an indecisive leader. This image was reinforced by his wavering and eventual backtracking on the base issue, which sparked huge demonstrations on Okinawa and drove his approval ratings below 25 percent.

“Unfortunately, the politics of the ruling party did not find reflection in the hearts of the people,” Mr. Hatoyama told an emergency meeting of lawmakers from his Democratic Party, which was broadcast on television. “It is regrettable that the people were gradually unwilling to listen to us.”

Mr. Hatoyama is the fourth Japanese prime minister to resign in four years, which is likely to cause renewed soul searching about the nation’s inability to produce an effective leader. It is also likely to feed concerns that political paralysis is preventing Japan from reversing its now nearly two-decade-long economic decline.

Mr. Hatoyama’s resignation will not force a change in government in Japan, because the Democrats still hold a commanding majority of seats in Parliament’s Lower House, which chooses the prime minister. But it will be a damaging blow to a party that had taken power in a landslide election victory that ended more than a half-century of nearly unbroken one-party domination in Japan.

Mr. Hatoyama took power in a historic change of government with vows to challenge the powerful bureaucracy’s grip on postwar governance and revive Japan’s stagnant economy. Instead, his inexperienced government appeared to become consumed by the base issue and a series of investigations into the political financing of Mr. Hatoyama and his backer in the party, Ichiro Ozawa.

Mr. Hatoyama said Wednesday that Mr. Ozawa, the Democratic Party’s secretary general and its shadowy power broker, would also resign. Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, said the party would meet Friday to choose a new prime minister. Some of the top candidates include Naoto Kan, the finance minister, and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.The contention over the American base, which dragged on for months, was emblematic of Mr. Hatoyama’s inability to make up his mind, or follow through on his party’s ambitious campaign promises.

The Democrats failed to deliver on a number of pledges, from eliminating highway tolls to finding enough savings from cutting bureaucratic waste to finance new subsidies like cash allowances for families with children. Instead, the new spending ended up raising concerns that Japan’s ballooning deficit could one day lead to a Greek-style financial collapse.

Mr. Hatoyama had been expected to be a diplomatic personality who would be able to build consensus among the members of his ideologically broad party. He had appeared to be naturally suited to the job, as a political blue-blood who hailed from one of Japan’s most powerful families. His grandfather had been a founding member of the Liberal Democratic Party, whose long grip on power Mr. Hatoyama’s Democrats ended last summer.

In the end, the base proved Mr. Hatoyama’s undoing. Japan’s public did not support altering the military alliance with the United States at a time when North Korea was testing nuclear weapons.

M. Amedeo Tumolillo contributed reporting from New York City.

[Redleader34]

This is interesting, as I thought it was that he didn't get rid of the base that killed him, since Okinawa seemed really angry that the base was still taking up a major section of the land. I guess the mainland still would rather have Okinawa serve as the target for missiles, to protect the main islands. 4 Prime Ministers in 4 years though, Japan is really in need of national leadership, and the new party can't even provide that!

[Phantasee]

Won't the new prime minister be considered kind of illegitimate until a new election is called? New PMs are usually given a few months to sort things out first, but trying to continue to govern when the mandate was given to the party led by the old boss, and not to the party led by the new boss, is kinda shady.

IIRC Alberta had a similar issue in the recent past when Ed Stelmach won the leadership race at the end of 2006, but waited until February of 2008 to call an election. Not that anything came of it, thirty some years of one party rule has a way of obscuring certain issues.

[Archaic`]

As I understand it, that's not generally considered an issue in Japan. Excepting when you have stronger personalities taking control, like Koizumi did on Post Office privatisation, who is on top is really not as important to how the party governs. People generally think of themselves more electing the party and its policies, as opposed to electing a specific leader.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Another day, another Japanese Prime Minister steps down. Quite frankly, it's a wonder Japan hasn't officially made corporate oligarchy a de jure government by now.

[Archaic`]

The important thing to consider about all the Japanese Prime Ministers who have stood down since Koizumi is that they're all part of "political dynasties", families who have been in politics for as long as anyone can remember. Each of their fathers were Prime Minister at one point, IIRC. The guy who's going to replace Hatoyama isn't part of any of those dynasties. He might have more staying power.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Doubt it makes a difference. He needs the backing of these families to stay in power anyhow.

[Illuminatus Primus]

LOL @ liberal democracy and "dynasties."

[Archaic`]

LOL @ liberal democracy and "dynasties."

You seem to be talking as if you think the US doesn't have quite a number of them itself. Just off the top of my head, there's the families of...

• Kennedy
• Bush
• Adams
• Harrison
• Lee
• Long
• Roosevelt
• Daley
• Taft
• Muhlenberg
• Udall

On a completely random note relating to dynasties, one of the closest living descendants of George Washington is HM Queen Elizabeth II. Funny how genealogies work out.

[Illuminatus Primus]

You're an idiot. Newsflash: I'm a radical socialist (it is, uh, in my signature): I don't think the U.S. is a real democracy. And even if I did, the tu quoque is not, despite how often it gets ridden like the town bicycle here, a valid argument.

[Guardsman Bass]

LOL @ liberal democracy and "dynasties."

Some political dynasties are going to be inevitable in any sort of elected government where you have well-connected families involved in politics - name recognition is very important, particularly if the political parties are heavily individualized, and incumbency is strong (meaning that you're likely only going to elect a new Senator/Congressman every decade or two, or longer).

That said, Japan has this (or maybe had it - the DPJ victory shook things up) on steroids.

[General Mung Beans]

I wonder if the new Prime Minister will stop the territorial revanchism over Dokdo.