EDITORIAL: Weak leadership

It is said that a politician's words are as weighty as his political life. It is all the more true with a country's leader. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, however, doesn't seem to understand how much weight his words carry.

In the run-up to the Lower House election last year, Hatoyama promised to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa outside the prefecture "at the very least."

As soon as he was forced to give up trying to find a way to move the base from the prefecture, he began to say he spoke only as the head of his Democratic Party of Japan, denying that it was one of the party's election promises. Indeed, the DPJ's manifesto for the election said only that it would "move in the direction of" reviewing the plan for the realignment of the U.S. forces and the presence of U.S. military bases in Japan.

The document didn't include any reference to the Futenma airfield, let alone its relocation outside the prefecture.

For many years, the DPJ called for moving the function of the base, located in the middle of a densely populated city, to outside the southern prefecture, or preferably outside Japan.

But the party was well aware the idea was politically difficult to achieve. So it decided not to make any specific promise about the Futenma issue when it had clearly a good chance of gaining power.

It was none other than Hatoyama who attempted to raise people's expectations for a solution to the sticky issue by making a bold pledge to rid the prefecture of the base.

For voters, such a pledge made in public by Hatoyama, chief of the DPJ and a strong candidate for prime minister, was nothing less than a formal election promise.

We were simply stunned when he suddenly tried to escape responsibility for his failure to honor the promise by saying it was not in the party's manifesto.

That is not to say that the party must always fulfill all its election promises. There are certain things that a party cannot know until it actually takes power. An unpredictable situation could arise after a party starts governing the country.

What is important when the government adjusts its policy proposals to changing reality is to do so after considering the implications of the move carefully and offering the public a detailed and sincere explanation about the decision.

Basic planks of a campaign platform should not be tinkered with. But inevitably there can be a reconsideration of some of the components.

But Hatoyama made his surprising remarks about his Futenma promise without taking any such steps.

We don't doubt the sincerity of his words when he talks about his desire to reduce the burden borne by people in Okinawa Prefecture.

But it is hard for him to refute the charge that he effectively betrayed the trust of the public by making the thoughtless remarks.

Hatoyama will be accused of causing serious harm to this nation's democratic process if his behavior destroys the credibility of manifesto-based election campaigns, which are finally taking root.

Even more troubling than his casually made promises that are not supported by a workable plan to carry them out is the fact that there are good reasons to suspect that they point to Hatoyama's lack of prudence.

Hatoyama referred to the importance of the deterrence provided by U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa Prefecture as the reason for his decision to abandon his plan to move the Futenma air station off the island.

Hatoyama admitted that he didn't see any reason for the Marines to remain in Okinawa Prefecture while he was campaigning for the Lower House election.

But he said he had gradually come to understand the need to keep U.S. Marines in Okinawa Prefecture as he "learned more and more about" the issue.

It is shocking if it really took him eight months of learning to gain an understanding of the deterrence provided by the U.S. Marines. Solving the Futenma relocation issue requires tackling the tough challenge of reducing the burden on Okinawa Prefecture without weakening deterrence.

At the very least, this is the bottom line concerning the Futenma issue.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 7