Hatoyama steps down

Dogged by dissent within his own party over policy failures and a money scandal, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced Wednesday he was stepping down.

Hatoyama also said he asked Ichiro Ozawa, secretary-general of his Democratic Party of Japan, to resign and that Ozawa had agreed.

At a televised meeting of DPJ lawmakers from both houses of the Diet on Wednesday, Hatoyama cited the confusion over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, as a key reason for his resignation.

That culminated in the Social Democratic Party bolting from the ruling coalition after Hatoyama decided last week to move Futenma functions to Nago, also in the prefecture.

Hatoyama also touched on a scandal involving his own political fund management organization as another reason.

The DPJ will hold a meeting of its lawmakers from both houses of the Diet on Friday to elect its new president.

Hatoyama leaves office barely nine months after he led his DPJ to victory in a historic Lower House election that pushed the Liberal Democratic Party into the opposition.

Although his Cabinet initially scored high public support ratings, Hatoyama saw them slide as it became increasingly clear he could not keep his campaign promise to relocate the Futenma airfield out of Okinawa Prefecture.

SDP head Mizuho Fukushima refused to go along with the Cabinet in approving the Futenma move, forcing Hatoyama to dismiss her from her Cabinet post on Friday. The SDP decided Sunday to leave the coalition.

The Futenma debacle defined Hatoyama's term. Hatoyama was also forced to backpedal on other policy issues, tarnishing the hope that a new era of politics had arrived.

A weekend survey by The Asahi Shimbun found that support for the Hatoyama Cabinet had fallen to 17 percent.

With an Upper House election slated this summer, DPJ members, faced with the prospect of going before angry voters, became more vocal in expressing their concerns that the ballot was unwinnable with Hatoyama leading the party.