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...called U.S.-led "market fundamentalism," Hatoyama has rejected Koizumi's now unpopular market reforms and is steering the economy toward something akin to a European-style welfare state with a wider government-funded social safety net. Though Hatoyama has continued to stress the crucial nature of the U.S.-Japan alliance and his friendly relationship with President Barack Obama - "We have come to call each other Barack and Yukio," he said during Obama's November visit to Tokyo - he has also backed away from policies that Washington views as vitally important to its global security priorities. In January, Hatoyama ended...
...home, Hatoyama's ideas have struck a chord with those who want their country to chart a new course. For decades - ever since its defeat in World War II, in fact - Japan has struggled to define its role in the world. Though in many respects a political and economic power in its own right, Japan has remained reliant on the U.S. for its own security. (Japan's postwar constitution renounces the use of force in international disputes.) The stabilizing presence of the U.S. military in Asia is as crucial as ever to Japan, which shares the same neighborhood...
...Japanese public's desire for change goes far beyond the realm of foreign relations. They ushered Hatoyama into office to breathe new life into an ossified political system that proved incapable of reversing the slow-motion decline of Japan's economy and global influence, a phenomenon the Japanese call "Japan passing." Thirty years ago, Japan was much like the China of today, an up-and-coming global power with an economy that was the envy of the world. Japanese companies such as Sony, Toyota and Honda shoved aside their competition from the West. By the late 1980s, Americans came...
...Hatoyama seems an unlikely choice to fix the mess. A politician for 27 years, he is as much a member of Japan's élite as the politicians he kicked out of office. The Hatoyamas are the bluest of bluebloods, with a long history in politics and big business. (His father served as Foreign Minister, while his mother's family founded tire giant Bridgestone.) The most unusual thing about him may be his wife Miyuki, who created an international stir by revealing she believed her soul was abducted by aliens and taken to Venus. Ironically, however, it is Hatoyama himself...
...TIME's covers about Japan...