JAPANESE PM YUKIO HATOYAMA RESIGNS AMID OKINAWA ROW
Baku, June 2 (AZERTAC). Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has announced his resignation after just eight months in office.
It comes after he broke an election pledge to move an unpopular US military base away from the island of Okinawa. Mr Hatoyama`s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is struggling to revive its chances in an election due in July. He said he had also asked DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, who has been embroiled in a funding scandal, to step down to "revitalise" the party.
The centre-left DPJ`s election landslide last year ended half a century of conservative rule in Japan. Mr Hatoyama, 63, was Japan`s fourth prime minister in four years. He will remain in office until his successor is appointed at a meeting of the DPJ on Friday.
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