National News
Hatoyama, Ozawa to resign over Futenma failure, money scandals
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Wednesday he will step down to take responsibility for his administration's confusion over the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture as well as over money scandals.
"I must take responsibility for forcing the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to leave the administration. I want to put an end to money scandals involving the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)," Hatoyama told a general meeting of DPJ members of both houses of the Diet. "I'll resign from my job."
The party will hold an election on Friday to pick a successor to Hatoyama as party leader. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan is among DPJ legislators named as hopeful candidates to replace Hatoyama.
Hatoyama said DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa will also step down over a political funding scandal at his request. Furthermore, the DPJ's Standing Officers Council, its executive office, will resign en masse.
Hatoyama said he has also asked Chiyomi Kobayashi, a DPJ member of the House of Representatives, to give up her seat over a political funding scandal involving her election campaign office.
A close aide to Hatoyama said the prime minister decided to resign on Monday. "He made up his mind to step down the day before yesterday. He didn't want fellow DPJ members in the Upper House to suffer defeat in the upcoming election."
Hatoyama became the fourth consecutive prime minister to offer his resignation less than one year after taking office, following Shinzo Abe, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso.
The Hatoyama administration's confusion over the Futenma relocation issue has shaken the reliability of the Japan-U.S. alliance. His administration has also lost international confidence amid rising tension in East Asia following North Korea's alleged torpedoing a South Korean military vessel.
On Friday last week, the Hatoyama Cabinet finally approved a plan to relocate Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to an area around the Henoko district of the Okinawa Prefecture city of Nago. He dismissed Fukushima, state minister for consumer affairs and gender equality, who refused to sign a document approving the decision, forcing the SDP to leave the tripartite ruling coalition.
Political funding scandals involving Hatoyama and Ozawa's political fund management bodies have also caused distrust in his administration.
A Mainichi Shimbun poll conducted over the weekend shows that the approval rating for the Hatoyama Cabinet had declined to 20 percent.
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(Mainichi Japan) June 2, 2010