Japanese PM Hatoyama quits over US base row

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Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned on Wednesday to improve his party’s chances in an election next month, after his popularity plunged over his broken campaign promise to move a US Marine base.
Finance minister Naoto Kan, who has a clean and defiant image, emerged as a likely successor. He signalled he intends to run for leadership of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan at a party meeting to be held on Friday.
Sweeping into office just eight months ago by defeating the long-ruling conservatives, Mr Hatoyama captured the imagination of many Japanese voters with his promises to bring change and transparency to government, as the country grappled with economic stagnation and an ageing, shrinking population.
So when he failed to deliver on his pledge to move the Marine Air Station Futenma off the southern island of Okinawa and his staff got ensnared in a political funding scandal, his approval ratings rapidly sank, falling below 20 per cent.
“He could not live up to the huge expectations,” said Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. “He just proved himself to be a rich kid without experience and leadership skills.”
“The expectations were so great, the disappointment was also great,” he added.
Mr Hatoyama, a professor-like millionaire with a Ph.D in engineering from Stanford University, is the fourth Japanese Prime Minister to resign in four years. Viewed as somewhat aloof and eccentric by the Japanese public, he earned the nickname “alien.” “Since last year’s elections, I tried to change politics in which the people of Japan would be the main actors,” Mr Hatoyama told a news conference broadcast nationwide. But he conceded his efforts fell short and people stopped listening to him.