|Video Courtesy of NTDTV |
Succumbing to pressure from his own Democratic Party of Japan (DJP), Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned on Wednesday, unable to keep his election promise to remove a U.S. base from Okinawa.
“The public has gradually refused to hear me. It’s a shame and I’m solely to blame for it,” Hatoyama said at a general assembly of DPJ lawmakers, according to Kyodo News.
According to Daily Yomiuri, DPJ lawmakers say that since Hatoyama’s election, eight months ago, the party has suffered poor leadership and they feel that they will not be able to compete confidently with other parties in upper house elections.
DJP will pick Hatoyama’s successor this Friday, and the Cabinet will reform on Monday, and then make a decision concerning the U.S. military base.
During his election campaign nine months ago, Hatoyama had pledged to remove the unpopular U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station from Okinawa prefecture entirely. This would have canceled the 2006 agreement with the United States to move the base to a less populated island in the prefecture, while still preserving U.S. military presence on Japanese territory.
The stance did not play well with the United States and Hatoyama tried in vain to find a viable alternative location for the base. Last week he admitted failure announcing that he would not be able to keep his election promise.
Okinawa is the largest U.S. base in Asia-Pacific housing more than half of the 47,000 American troops stationed in Japan, which unleashed the calls for his resignation.
Okinawans strongly oppose hosting any American military installation. On April 25 over 90,000 residents staged a rally to send that message home to Hatoyama. Okinawa governor, Hirokazu Nakaima, joined the rally as did over 30 local town mayors.
Over the years, locals have complained of noise, pollution, and conflicts with U.S. soldiers, including the alleged rapes of a schoolgirl, and another young woman.
Hatoyama was Japan’s fifth prime minster in four years.
The Japanese yen and Japanese stocks fell in response to the political crisis, reported Bloomberg.
“The public has gradually refused to hear me. It’s a shame and I’m solely to blame for it,” Hatoyama said at a general assembly of DPJ lawmakers, according to Kyodo News.
According to Daily Yomiuri, DPJ lawmakers say that since Hatoyama’s election, eight months ago, the party has suffered poor leadership and they feel that they will not be able to compete confidently with other parties in upper house elections.
DJP will pick Hatoyama’s successor this Friday, and the Cabinet will reform on Monday, and then make a decision concerning the U.S. military base.
During his election campaign nine months ago, Hatoyama had pledged to remove the unpopular U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station from Okinawa prefecture entirely. This would have canceled the 2006 agreement with the United States to move the base to a less populated island in the prefecture, while still preserving U.S. military presence on Japanese territory.
The stance did not play well with the United States and Hatoyama tried in vain to find a viable alternative location for the base. Last week he admitted failure announcing that he would not be able to keep his election promise.
Okinawa is the largest U.S. base in Asia-Pacific housing more than half of the 47,000 American troops stationed in Japan, which unleashed the calls for his resignation.
Okinawans strongly oppose hosting any American military installation. On April 25 over 90,000 residents staged a rally to send that message home to Hatoyama. Okinawa governor, Hirokazu Nakaima, joined the rally as did over 30 local town mayors.
Over the years, locals have complained of noise, pollution, and conflicts with U.S. soldiers, including the alleged rapes of a schoolgirl, and another young woman.
Hatoyama was Japan’s fifth prime minster in four years.
The Japanese yen and Japanese stocks fell in response to the political crisis, reported Bloomberg.
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