Japanese PM Hatoyama offers resignation
Yukio Hatoyama has said he wanted to step down as Japan's prime minister over his government's failure to fulfill election pledges concerning the relocation of a U.S. military base in Okinawa, the NHK TV channel has said.
Japan and the U.S. agreed in 2006 to relocate the Futenma base from an urban area to reclaimed land in Okinawa's northern city of Nago. Japan's Democratic Party, led by Hatoyama, pledged to review the issue as it came to power in August 2009. The White House expressed its dissatisfaction over the move.
The Hatoyama government had pledged that the military base would be relocated "outside of the country, or, at least, outside of the prefecture" of Okinawa, the TV channel said.
After eight months of negotiations, a decision was made to relocate the base within the prefecture.
Hatoyama is expected to announce his resignation at an emergency plenary meeting of Democratic lawmakers later in the day, NHK reported.
Hatoyama has been Japan's prime minister since September 2009. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1986, he became president of the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition party, in May 2009. He then led the party to victory in last year's general election, defeating the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Hatoyama's popularity has fallen drastically due to scandals with Japan's number two man, Ichiro Ozawa, after three of his current and former aides had been charged with misreporting political funds, Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.