The Prime Minister of Japan is resigning because he couldn't get a US Marine base off one of the islands.
Note: he broke a campaign promise; that's serious stuff! You don't just get away with that! I mean, this would obviously be less of an issue if he were blamed for, oh, I dunno...child molestation happening on his watch or some minor pecadillo like that, I'm sure. But not being able to relocate an ally's Marine base? That's huge and demands resignation.
Note: he broke a campaign promise; that's serious stuff! You don't just get away with that! I mean, this would obviously be less of an issue if he were blamed for, oh, I dunno...child molestation happening on his watch or some minor pecadillo like that, I'm sure. But not being able to relocate an ally's Marine base? That's huge and demands resignation.
Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Wednesday he was resigning over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off the southern island of Okinawa.
The prime minister faced growing pressure from within his own party to resign ahead of July's upper house elections. His approval ratings had plummeted over his bungled handling of the relocation of the Marine Air Station Futenma, which reinforced his public image as an indecisive leader.
Hatoyama is the fourth Japanese prime minister to resign in four years.
2 comments:
There's more to this than you think. The Okinawans and the the Japanese in general have legit reasons for opposing the US military presence on Okinawa. In 1995 three US servicemen were convicted of raping an Okinawan girl. Hatoyama's flip-flop reawakened simmering Japanese anger over the incident and the American military presence in Japan.
My point is just what is expected of leaders when it comes to accountability in such situations. Surely this Prime Minister can't be blamed for those rapes directly. But, the public sees him as handling it ineffectively, so he resigns.
Yet, as we speak, Cardinal Brady is still in power.
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