Word: hatoyamas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Just days into the spring Diet session, Ozawa, probably the DPJ's most powerful politician, casts a shadow not only over Diet deliberations but also the competency of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration. While scandals come and go in Japan, some observers wonder if the young government that swept the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) out of more than five decades of single-party rule is resilient enough to ride this storm, with the Upper House elections slated for July. (See pictures of Japan's relationship with the world...
...However it unfolds, the imbroglio doesn't bode well for the DPJ - or for Hatoyama. Still building public confidence in his fifth month in office, Hatoyama is in the throes of trying to pass the second supplementary budget for the current year by the end of January, and the 2010 budget by the end of March. "[Ozawa's] situation highlights Hatoyama's judgment," says Dujarric. "A lot of criticism has said that he's too indecisive. At first he supported Ozawa and then vaguely backtracked. That doesn't make Hatoyama look good...
...After initially seeming to come out in public support of Ozawa earlier this month, Hatoyama has since taken more of a wait-and-see stance. It's not helping his falling approval ratings, which, at 41.5%, are now lower than his disapproval rate of 44.1%, according to a recent Kyodo News poll. Last month, news broke that contributions from Hatoyama's mother were recorded as political funds coming from other donors - some of whom were dead. Hatoyama has promised to pay hundreds of millions of yen in tax on that sum, but the damage control has been slow. Still, according...
...meantime, Toshikawa says the situation between Ozawa and Hatoyama is delicate. He says, "Hatoyama isn't enjoying Ozawa's frequent interference" on issues from the budget to what to do about the Futenma base relocation. But, he adds, Hatoyama needs Ozawa's support and that of the DPJ to pass the 2010 budget, which will require patience through the end of March...
Over the years, thousands have stepped forward to claim they've seen - or been abducted by - UFOs. Among these witnesses are more than a few famous names. Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of the current Japanese Prime Minister, wrote in a 2008 autobiography that one night while she was sleeping "my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus." (Her soul was later returned.) U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich provided one of the oddest moments in the tumultuous 2008 presidential elections when he affirmed in a televised debate that in the 1980s, he and actress Shirley MacLaine witnessed an unidentified...