TOKYO, June 2 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, hobbled by government scandals and criticism of relocation of a U.S. base, resigned after just eight months in office.
The 63-year-old Stanford University doctorate degree holder who steered his Democratic Party of Japan to power after elections in August, announced his decision Wednesday at a general assembly of party lawmakers after his Cabinet's approval ratings had fallen below 20 percent from a high of more than 70 percent when it took office.
Hatoyama said he would leave ahead of next month's upper house parliamentary elections, Kyodo News reported. The DPJ is expected to name a successor Friday, with Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan seen as a leading candidate.
The DPJ needs to do well in the upper house elections to win passage of critical legislation as Japan comes out of its worst post-World War II recession.
Kyodo reported Hatoyama cited the scandals and the dispute over the U.S. Marine base relocation. In the accord announced last week, his government agreed to relocate the base's air station to a less populated site within the Okinawa prefecture and not outside it as Hatoyama had pledged in his election campaign.
Hatoyama becomes the fourth Japanese prime minister in a row who did not complete more than a year in office, Kyodo reported.
Hatoyama cited the row over the U.S. base, which led the Social Democratic Party to leave the ruling coalition, and "money and politics" scandals for his decision, Kyodo reported.
He said party Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa would also resign "for the sake of establishing a new and cleaner Democratic Party of Japan."
Hatoyama had come under growing pressure from his party lawmakers to resign. The other member of the ruling coalition is the People's New Party. The DPJ has a comfortable majority in the lower house.
The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party called for general elections with its leader saying Hatoyama's resignation has not solved any problem, Kyodo reported. The LDP had ruled post-war Japan for decades until its defeat by the DPJ.
