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Japan's parliament elected outspoken populist Naoto Kan as prime minister Friday, handing the political veteran the immediate task of rallying his party and reclaiming its mandate for change before elections next month. Kan succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down Wednesday after squandering the public's high hopes with broken campaign promises, including moving a U.S. Marine base off Okinawa island, and financial scandals.

TOKYO, June 1 (UPI) -- Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his decision to step down Wednesday after only eight months in office. The leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, which he helped come to power last September after the August elections, announced his decision at a general assembly of party lawmakers, Kyodo News reported. The prime minister's ruling coalition has seen its public approval ratings plunge in recent months. Things came to a head after the Social Democratic Party, a coalition partner, decided to leave over the government's accord allowing the U.S. Marine base's air station to...

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has announced his resignation after just eight months in office. He was forced out after breaking an election pledge to move an unpopular US military base away from the southern island of Okinawa. The move comes as his Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) struggles to revive its chances in an election due in July. The centre-left DPJ's election landslide last year ended half a century of conservative rule in Japan. But wrangling over the base distracted attention from their broader aims - pursuing a more equal alliance with the US, a bigger welfare state, and...

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama may step down within the next 48 hours amid growing public and political resentment at his handling of the relocation of a US Marines Corps base in Okinawa. Japanese Prime MInister Yukio Hatoyama Mr Hatoyama is scheduled to have showdown talks with Ichiro Ozawa, the secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, on Tuesday evening. Mr Ozawa is widely considered to be the party's kingmaker and the meeting may well determine the prime minister's political fate. Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Hatoyama said he was willing to stay on as prime minister, despite growing criticism...

<p>Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will announce his resignation at an emergency plenary meeting of ruling party lawmakers later Wednesday, national broadcaster NHK reported.</p> <p>Calls have been growing within the Democratic Party of Japan for his resignation after a recent plunge in the cabinet's approval rating and his handling of the relocation of a U.S. military base in Okinawa.</p>

TOKYO - Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he intends to resign, a media report said Wednesday. Public broadcaster NHK said that Hatoyama told his party executives he intended to step down over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off the southern island of Okinawa.

JAPAN-POLITICS/HATOYAMA-OZAWA (URGENT, REPEAT) Tue Jun 1, 2010 9:19pm EDT RPT-Japan PM Hatoyama says to resign, Ozawa to quit TOKYO June 2 (Reuters) - Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said on Wednesday he would resign, as the ruling party struggles to revive its chances in an upper house election expected in July. He said ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa would also resign from the party's No.2 post.

Out on stands, now, here in Japan. Mass circulation. Hope and "CHANGE"."CHANGE" (North Korea and Red China) can believe in. Hmmm mmmm MMMM!

Japan's prime minister said Tuesday that it will be impossible to move all parts of a key U.S. Marine base out of Okinawa, risking a political backlash by breaking with past promises to relocate the facility off the southern island. It was the first time since Yukio Hatoyama became prime minister in September that he officially acknowledged that at least part of Futenma U.S. Marine Corps airfield would remain in Okinawa, which hosts more than half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan under a security pact. The admission is likely to further dent Hatoyama's popularity, which has steadily declined...

Apr 15, 2010 Japan PM aide hits out at slight TOKYO - YUKIO Hatoyama's top aide on Thursday criticised a US newspaper column which labelled the Japanese premier the 'biggest loser' at a major nuclear summit hosted by US President Barack Obama. 'It seems somewhat impolite as an expression addressing the top leader of a country,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told a regular briefing, referring to the column published in The Washington Post on Wednesday. The Washington Post article was highlighted by Japanese media on Thursday. Hatoyama, whose approval rating has slipped below 30 per cent in some polls...

U.S. puts off meetings on broader ties / PM's inaction on Futenma issue blamed The Yomiuri Shimbun The U.S. government, reacting to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's procrastination over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, has informed Tokyo it will postpone key bilateral consultations aimed at "deepening the Japan-U.S. alliance," government sources said Tuesday. The previously agreed consultations were suggested by Hatoyama in summit talks with U.S. President Barack Obama when he visited Tokyo last month. Expectations on the part of the Japanese government were to see the consultations start before the end of...

Japan's leader apologizes for donation scandal PROBE DOGS PRIME MINISTER Family linked to fake campaign contributions By Blaine Harden Tuesday, December 1, 2009 TOKYO -- For politicians in Japan, the road to scandal usually winds through construction companies, defense contractors or a mistress. For newly elected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the road leads to his mother, an octogenarian heiress. Prosecutors have traced about $10.4 million that Yasuko Hatoyama, 87, gave to her son over a five-year period ending in 2008, sources in the investigation have told major news outlets in Japan. Some of that money was reportedly funneled into fake...

"(Japan Prime Minister) Hatoyama Vs.Obama -- The Scandal That Nobody Will Report" (由紀夫 vs オバマ「書かれざるスキャンダル」）Reporters at the weekly Shukan Bunshun news magazine here in Tokyo, Japan have written a rather caustic report about President Obama's 23 hours in Tokyo last week, from a frank Japanese perspective, exclusively in the Japanese language, and released to the newstands just now. In that sense this is more or less an *FR Exclusive*. A number of eye-opening claims, pieces of information and details emerge about Obama's brief stay in Japan as part of his disastrous Asian trip--over and above the very controversial, near-"dogeza"...

Obama, Hatoyama prioritize alliance Cooperation on nuke arms, emissions; no Futenma deal Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama vowed Friday to bolster the bilateral alliance and cooperate on pressing global issues, including climate change and nuclear disarmament. The two also touched on the sensitive relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa. The issue has cast a shadow on bilateral relations. They said it was their common goal to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Earlier this week, the two governments decided to form a ministerial-level working group to find a way to resolve...

Fukushima Mizuho (Hatoyama's Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety, Social Affairs, and Gender Equality) The SDPJ boss hasn’t always been so chummy with the DPJ. She once said, “The LDP and the DPJ are only as different as curry rice and rice curry.” Now that she’s part of the government headed by the latter, it would seem that she has developed a more discriminating palate. She and husband Kaido Yuichi are both attorneys. Ms. Fukushima has focused on radical feminist causes, and she’s written three books on sexual harassment and domestic violence. She’s also written another called...

What Hatoyama Has in Common with Roh Moo-hyun The steps the new Japanese government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has been taking are reminiscent of the early days of former President Roh Moo-hyun's administration, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said Sunday. The newspaper pointed out that the two administrations resemble each other most in foreign policy, and particularly in relations with the U.S. The Hatoyama administration has criticized ousted Liberal Democratic governments for being at Washington's beck and call and has been calling for a more equal relationship. That, the paper said, is strikingly similar to the Roh administration's pledge not...

Japan denies friction with US by Kyoko Hasegawa Mon Nov 2, 1:57 am ET TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's centre-left government on Monday denied US ties were being strained by a row over an American airbase, amid confusion over whether its foreign minister will travel to Washington this week. The US State Department on Saturday said Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada would meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday, but within hours dropped mention of the meeting from Clinton's schedule. In Japan, media reports suggested Okada was still seeking a meeting late this week, ahead of a Tokyo visit...

Japan has told the United States it will end a naval refueling mission [in the Indian Ocean] that supports the war in Afghanistan, a top defence official said...Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office last month, has said he wants "more equal" relations with the United States and that he opposes plans to build a new US air base on the southern island of Okinawa...

Japanese prosecutors are investigating political donations made to new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama - including some which appeared to come from dead people. Mr Hatoyama, who won a historic election victory in August, admitted in June that some donations to his fundraising body had been misidentifed and blamed an aide for the mistake. He told reporters he is co-operating with the inquiry and hopes that everything will soon be clear.

For over 50 years, one party ruled Japan virtually uninterrupted. During that time, Japan remained a loyal ally and supporter of U.S. policy. This month, a historic event took place. Japan has new leadership. In a landslide victory, a new party has done the seemingly impossible. A new freshman class of leaders now governs the Land of the Rising Sun. The effects are already rippling across the Pacific toward America. Yukio Hatoyama is Japan’s new leader. He officially took office last Wednesday, and he is already threatening to split with the United States. Hatoyama blames America for the global economic...