Hatoyama to Resign Over Base Row

By YUKA HAYASHI and JACOB M. SCHLESINGER
TOKYO—A tearful Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he will quit less than nine months after taking office, a dramatic downfall that could fray ties with the U.S. and frustrate other allies seeking greater cooperation and leadership from Tokyo.
[0602hatoyama2] Associated Press

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama answers to reporters questions in front of his official residence in Tokyo Wednesday morning, June 2, 2010.
Hatoyama Resignation

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The Japanese leader's sudden resignation could stall a controversial deal he announced just last Friday with President Barack Obama to keep a large Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa, an agreement that both leaders had said was essential to show a unified front against regional security threats like North Korea and China—but proved deeply unpopular in Japan.

Mr. Hatoyama's already-low poll ratings fell further in recent days in response to the pact, and one of his ruling coalition partners left the government in protest. The prime minister had broken one of his key campaign promises in agreeing to the deal, and he cited his failure to keep that pledge as the primary reason for his resignation during his sudden Wednesday morning Tokyo announcement.

"I sincerely hope people will understand the agonizing choice I had to make," Mr. Hatoyama said, with tears welling up in his eyes. "I knew we had to maintain a trusting relationship with the U.S. at any cost, while seeking cooperation with" his domestic political partners. "I think I have to take responsibility" for the fracturing of the political coalition that resulted from the deal with Washington.

Beyond the military agreement, Mr. Hatoyama's imminent departure shows just the difficulty of transforming Japan's stagnant politics and policymaking, an ambitious goal he and his Democratic Party of Japan had set when winning a landslide election last August, ending half a century of near-unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.

Japan's two decades of slow growth have long been blamed on a lack of credible political leadership able to craft and sell to the public dramatic new tax, spending, and regulatory policies seen as needed to jumpstart the world's second-largest economy. Supporters at home and abroad hoped Mr. Hatoyama could begin to chart that course and he took office with popularity above 70%.

But he has proved just as weak as the string of LDP leaders who proceeded him, struggling to rein in Japan's large public debt, and zigzagging over several months over how to handle the question of the American bases. His popularity had fallen to about 20% in recent weeks, dragged down both by his perceived lack of leadership—and also old-style LDP-type money scandals that have tainted him and one his chief aides.

Mr. Hatoyama cited the scandals as another reason for his resignation, and announced that his chief political strategist, DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa, was resigning along with him.

Mr. Hatoyama's attempts to win broad support for his agenda of political change have been hampered by scandals that have led prosecutors to indict aides to both him and Mr. Ozawa for breaking the nation's political funds laws. While prosecutors have decided not to pursue Mr. Hatoyama himself, Mr. Ozawa still faces a personal criminal probe.

During their two separate meetings held Monday and Tuesday, Mr. Hatoyama said he told Mr. Ozawa he was willing to step down to take responsibility for his own campaign fund scandal but at the same time, requested Mr. Ozawa to step down over the senior statesman's own fund-raising issues. "I said to the secretary general I would step down but that I also wanted him to step down," Mr. Hatoyama said, adding that Mr. Ozawa consented to his request. "This will allow us to make a new DPJ, a clean DPJ."