Hatoyama shrugs off calls to resign
June 1, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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JAPAN'S Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama brushed aside calls to quit yesterday despite fading chances of gaining a decisive win in an upcoming upper house election needed to smooth policy-making.
Some calls have emerged in Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan for the premier to step down after a tiny leftist party bolted the ruling coalition. The party was angry at his failure to keep a campaign pledge to move a US airbase off Okinawa island in southern Japan.
But with time short and no guarantee that replacing Hatoyama would boost his party's fortunes in an upper house poll expected in July, analysts said Hatoyama will probably cling to his post.
"If the sense of crisis mounts to such a level that they are ready to swallow someone who is less of a consensus maker, they may be ready to get rid of Hatoyama," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano.
Most pundits have tipped outspoken Finance Minister Naoto Kan as likely successor if Hatoyama quits.
"But at the end of the day, Hatoyama would have to step down voluntarily and that's unlikely, though not impossible," Nakano said.
Support for Hatoyama's government took another hit, falling as low as 17 percent in one of a spate of surveys published yesterday, after he fired the head of the tiny Social Democratic Party from her cabinet post on Friday, prompting the party to leave the coalition two days later.
The political furore is distracting the government as it thrashes out a plan to cut Japan's huge public debt and figures out a strategy to engineer growth despite a fast-aging population.
Financial markets are keeping an eye on the political confusion, which has deepened since the Democrats swept to power last September. The Democrats' win ousted the conservative Liberal Democratic Party after more than 50 years of almost non-stop rule.
"The political turmoil in Japan may not immediately deal a blow to the Japanese economy, but it may dampen foreign investors' appetite for Japanese stocks and stock falls may affect consumer sentiment," said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist at RBS Securities.
Equally if not more troubling for the government than the cabinet's ratings slide, a survey by the Yomiuri newspaper showed that 19 percent of voters now plan to cast their ballots for the main opposition LDP compared to just 14 percent for Hatoyama's party.
Hatoyama has wobbled on a range of campaign pledges from cash allowances for parents to toll-free highways. But analysts said some glitches were to be expected given the raft of problems inherited from the LDP and the Democrats' attempt to change how Japan is governed by relying less on bureaucrats and focusing policies on consumers and workers rather than companies.
In the latest blow to Hatoyama, the tiny SDP left the ruling bloc on Sunday after the premier gave up on his pledge to move a US Marine airbase off Okinawa. Hatoyama cited the lack of a viable alternative and the need to keep US-Japan ties tight given tension on the Korean peninsula.
Some calls have emerged in Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan for the premier to step down after a tiny leftist party bolted the ruling coalition. The party was angry at his failure to keep a campaign pledge to move a US airbase off Okinawa island in southern Japan.
But with time short and no guarantee that replacing Hatoyama would boost his party's fortunes in an upper house poll expected in July, analysts said Hatoyama will probably cling to his post.
"If the sense of crisis mounts to such a level that they are ready to swallow someone who is less of a consensus maker, they may be ready to get rid of Hatoyama," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano.
Most pundits have tipped outspoken Finance Minister Naoto Kan as likely successor if Hatoyama quits.
"But at the end of the day, Hatoyama would have to step down voluntarily and that's unlikely, though not impossible," Nakano said.
Support for Hatoyama's government took another hit, falling as low as 17 percent in one of a spate of surveys published yesterday, after he fired the head of the tiny Social Democratic Party from her cabinet post on Friday, prompting the party to leave the coalition two days later.
The political furore is distracting the government as it thrashes out a plan to cut Japan's huge public debt and figures out a strategy to engineer growth despite a fast-aging population.
Financial markets are keeping an eye on the political confusion, which has deepened since the Democrats swept to power last September. The Democrats' win ousted the conservative Liberal Democratic Party after more than 50 years of almost non-stop rule.
"The political turmoil in Japan may not immediately deal a blow to the Japanese economy, but it may dampen foreign investors' appetite for Japanese stocks and stock falls may affect consumer sentiment," said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist at RBS Securities.
Equally if not more troubling for the government than the cabinet's ratings slide, a survey by the Yomiuri newspaper showed that 19 percent of voters now plan to cast their ballots for the main opposition LDP compared to just 14 percent for Hatoyama's party.
Hatoyama has wobbled on a range of campaign pledges from cash allowances for parents to toll-free highways. But analysts said some glitches were to be expected given the raft of problems inherited from the LDP and the Democrats' attempt to change how Japan is governed by relying less on bureaucrats and focusing policies on consumers and workers rather than companies.
In the latest blow to Hatoyama, the tiny SDP left the ruling bloc on Sunday after the premier gave up on his pledge to move a US Marine airbase off Okinawa. Hatoyama cited the lack of a viable alternative and the need to keep US-Japan ties tight given tension on the Korean peninsula.
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