Pressure mounts on Hatoyama to resign
Source: Agencies |
June 2, 2010, Wednesday
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JAPANESE Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's fate was up in the air yesterday after inconclusive talks with a ruling party power broker, as pressure persisted within his party on him to resign ahead of an election.
Calls have emerged in Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan for the premier to step down after just eight months in the job, to revive the party's chances in an upper house election expected in July that it must win to ease its policy making.
Political confusion, including the weekend departure of a tiny leftist party from the ruling coalition, has distracted the government and worried investors as the government thrashes out a plan to cut huge public debt and crafts a strategy to engineer growth despite a fast-aging population.
A smiling Hatoyama declined to comment after talks with Democratic Party Secretary-general Ichiro Ozawa, seen as the real power behind the government, and a party official said the two would meet again this week.
Hatoyama had repeated earlier that he would stay and some analysts said it would be hard for him to quit unless Ozawa stepped down too.
Voter suspicions about a funding scandal embroiling Ozawa, the party's campaign strategist, have also eroded public support.
If Hatoyama were to step down, he would be the fourth consecutive prime minister to leave office after a year or less, so quitting now would doubtless spark criticism among voters.
"I will discuss, cooperate (with Ozawa) and tackle the difficulties this country faces," Hatoyama told reporters yesterday morning.
The Democrats swept to power after a landslide win in an election for parliament's powerful lower house last August, ousting the conservative Liberal Democratic Party after more than 50 years of almost nonstop rule.
But doubts over Hatoyama's leadership skills have eroded the government's approval ratings, with one poll showing support at just 17 percent after he failed to keep a campaign pledge to move a United States airbase off Okinawa island in Japan.
Most analysts have tipped outspoken Finance Minister Naoto Kan as the likely successor if Hatoyama quits.
But while recent surveys show a majority of voters think Hatoyama should resign over his broken promise on the Futenma airbase, some party lawmakers called for him to hang on.
"We should see real results going forward, so I think it's best if he continues his work," Health Minister Akira Nagatsuma told reporters, saying time was needed for the Democrats' policies to take root.
It was also unclear whether a change at the top would improve the Democrats' chances in the election.
Calls have emerged in Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan for the premier to step down after just eight months in the job, to revive the party's chances in an upper house election expected in July that it must win to ease its policy making.
Political confusion, including the weekend departure of a tiny leftist party from the ruling coalition, has distracted the government and worried investors as the government thrashes out a plan to cut huge public debt and crafts a strategy to engineer growth despite a fast-aging population.
A smiling Hatoyama declined to comment after talks with Democratic Party Secretary-general Ichiro Ozawa, seen as the real power behind the government, and a party official said the two would meet again this week.
Hatoyama had repeated earlier that he would stay and some analysts said it would be hard for him to quit unless Ozawa stepped down too.
Voter suspicions about a funding scandal embroiling Ozawa, the party's campaign strategist, have also eroded public support.
If Hatoyama were to step down, he would be the fourth consecutive prime minister to leave office after a year or less, so quitting now would doubtless spark criticism among voters.
"I will discuss, cooperate (with Ozawa) and tackle the difficulties this country faces," Hatoyama told reporters yesterday morning.
The Democrats swept to power after a landslide win in an election for parliament's powerful lower house last August, ousting the conservative Liberal Democratic Party after more than 50 years of almost nonstop rule.
But doubts over Hatoyama's leadership skills have eroded the government's approval ratings, with one poll showing support at just 17 percent after he failed to keep a campaign pledge to move a United States airbase off Okinawa island in Japan.
Most analysts have tipped outspoken Finance Minister Naoto Kan as the likely successor if Hatoyama quits.
But while recent surveys show a majority of voters think Hatoyama should resign over his broken promise on the Futenma airbase, some party lawmakers called for him to hang on.
"We should see real results going forward, so I think it's best if he continues his work," Health Minister Akira Nagatsuma told reporters, saying time was needed for the Democrats' policies to take root.
It was also unclear whether a change at the top would improve the Democrats' chances in the election.
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