Jiji Press is reporting that Hatoyama Yukio will be announcing his intent to resign as prime minister at a special emergency meeting of Democratic Party of Japan this morning.
Congratulations U.S. government, you have just concluded an agreement with someone who will not even be around long enough to get a copy of the agreement text via the post.
Good luck on trying to hold the new guy or gal to the agreement, considering how its acceptance seems to have impacted Hatoyama's political viability.
Congratulations also to the international financial community. With the time and energy to be expended electing a new DPJ president, the selection of a new party leadership group and Cabinet and the unsettled mood in the Diet, the chances of the revised postal reform bill passing the House of Councillors before the end of the current Diet session is just about zero.
Reuters report on resignation announcement.
AP report on the announcement.
Later - The Yomiuri Shimbun is claiming that Ozawa Ichiro will also resign as DPJ Secretary-General. I say "is claiming" rather than "reports" because as far as Ozawa goes, the Yomiuri is not an unbiased source.
You were right! But will it be Kan? Let's hope so. Btw, I dont agree that it was signing the Futenma agreement that killed off Hatoyama - more the dithering that preceded it.
ReplyDeleteMy question is: why did Japanese voters not support HY's efforts over Okinawa? Or did they? If they didn't, why did he persist?
Michael, I also wondered about the implications for the PNP bill. I wonder if this is almost deliberate....
ReplyDeleteAs for the US-Japan relationship, I wonder given this
http://the-diplomat.com/tokyo-notes/2010/05/26/still-hopeful/
and a curious comment from Jun Okumura (below) on my blog about the very outside possibility of a SOFA revision, that there might be something else going on behind the scenes.
http://sigma1.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/to-add/#comment-53
This might also be relevant (jp)
http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/0601/TKY201006010513.html
If it isn't meaningful, then yes, I think Japanese leaders from now on will be very careful about "engaging" the US, at least in a genuine way.
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