Hatoyama Faces Difficulties after Half Year in Office

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama is facing tough times after six months in power, due to political
fund scandals and a dispute over a U.S. military base.

For now, Hatoyama intends to make his utmost effort to implement
policy measures for fiscal 2010, including child allowances and tuition-free
high-school education, now that a state budget for the year starting April 1
is certain to pass parliament within this month.
However, the Hatoyama cabinet saw its public support drop to 30.9
pct, half the level when it took office Sept. 16, according to the latest
poll by Jiji Press. A slip below 30 pct is considered a sign that a cabinet
may step down before long.
The Hatoyama administration has been roiled by campaign finance
scandals that engulf the prime minister himself and Ichiro Ozawa,
secretary-general of Hatoyama's ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
In addition, senior members of a teachers' union in the
northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido have been arrested on suspicions of
making illegal donations to a DPJ lawmaker.
Critics accuse Hatoyama of taking a lenient stance toward Ozawa,
who has been under pressure to step down as DPJ secretary-general for his
scandal.
On a dispute over where to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma
airfield in Okinawa Prefecture, the Hatoyama administration is considering
moving it to the inland section of the Marine's Camp Schwab in Nago in the
same southern Japan prefecture.
But local opposition to the proposal has been growing stronger as
the city assembly of Nago recently passed a resolution that opposes it.
The dispute involves the Hatoyama government's decision to
reconsider a 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement to relocate the base to the coastal
area of Camp Schwab. The United States sticks to the original deal.
Hatoyama has repeatedly vowed to resolve the dispute by the end of
May by presenting a solution that is acceptable to both the United States
and Okinawa people.
If he fails to do so, he will be will be driven into a dire strait.

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