TOKYO, June 2 (UPI) -- The main Japanese opposition party was unmoved Wednesday by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's decision to resign, saying new elections should be held.
Tadamori Oshima, secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, said Hatoyama's announcement had not solved any problem and that his Democratic Party of Japan, which leads the ruling coalition, "should seek a public mandate by dissolving the House of Representatives and calling a general election," Kyodo News reported.
Oshima said Hatoyama's televised resignation announcement "sounded only aimed at winning the House of Councilors (upper house) election'' to be held next month.
The LDP was in power in post-World War II Japan for decades until its defeat by Hatoyama's DPJ in elections last August.
Hatoyama, in office for about eight months, announced his decision to leave Wednesday after his Cabinet's approval ratings had fallen below 20 percent from a high of more than 70 percent when it took office. He said he would leave ahead of next month's elections, Kyodo News reported.
The DPJ, which has a comfortable majority in the lower house, needs to do well in the upper house elections to win passage of critical legislation as Japan comes out of its worst post-war recession.
Hatoyama said he was leaving because of his failure to resolve a dispute over relocating a U.S. military base in Okinawa as he had pledged during his election campaign and scandals over political funds.
New Komeito party leader Natsuo Yamaguchi was quoted as saying Hatoyama had failed to manage the government adequately.
Separately, a Pentagon official urged Tokyo to respect the accord on the U.S. Marine base in Okinawa regardless of "whoever is in power"
"This is an agreement between governments, not between politicians,'' the Pentagon official was quoted as saying.
A CNN report said Hatoyama's critics claimed he caved to U.S. pressure on the base issue, leading to the breakup of the ruling coalition.
In his announcement, Hatoyama said he may have lost public trust but expressed hope future generations would remember his legacy, which included efforts to change politics in which the people of Japan would be the main characters and not the bureaucracy.
The Times of London reported more critical than the U.S. base issue is Japan's fiscal position and the huge public debt Hatoyama's party inherited. But instead of cutting public spending, his government came up with the country's largest-ever budget.
