Japan Must Move Away From U.S. Dependency, DPJ’s Hatoyama Says

 By Toko Sekiguchi and Takashi Hirokawa Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) --

 The Democratic Party of Japan, which is likely to take power after this year’s elections, will seek an alliance with the U.S. that is less subordinate than that of the last 50 years, a senior DPJ lawmaker said. “We want to move away from U.S. dependency to a more equal alliance,” party Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “We’ve followed the U.S. subserviently in the past.” The DPJ, which has never led the government,Shox 2:40 is poised to oust the Liberal Democratic Party from its almost unbroken half- century of control. Party head Ichiro Ozawa has called for a more assertive foreign policy and unsuccessfully opposed the use of Japanese naval vessels for refueling aid in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. With Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s approval ratings falling toward single digits, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the unusual step of meeting Ozawa and Hatoyama during her stop in Tokyo last week. Clinton and President Barack Obama have emphasized the importance of ties with Japan, and Ozawa assured Clinton that a DPJ-led government will still treat the bilateral alliance as the country’s most important one. “Ozawa told Clinton he is misunderstood by the U.S.” as being antagonistic toward the alliance, Hatoyama said. “We are only looking for an equal relationship, which we believe the U.S. also prefers.” Hatoyama spoke hours before Aso left for Washington to be the first foreign leader to visit Obama. The Japanese premier’s public support is falling as his plans to lift the world’s second-largest economy from a worsening recession have stalled in parliament. Criticism of Leadership Aso has come under fire from senior members of his own party for his lack of leadership, which was underscored last week when Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa quit after appearing to be drunk at a press conference in Rome following a meeting of ministers from the Group of Seven nations. “Aso’s cabinet of buddies led to that unimaginable event,” said Hatoyama, who like the prime minister and Nakagawa is the son of a prominent politician. The DPJ will Nike Men Air Force 1 Lowcreate a cabinet based on “not on their electoral prospects, but on merit,” Hatoyama said. “In this light, it’s quite possible that non-lawmakers will be appointed.” Hatoyama’s party controls the less-powerful upper house of parliament ahead of a lower-house election that must be called by Sept. 10. The DPJ’s support rate is at 29 percent, compared with the LDP’s 20 percent, the Mainichi newspaper said yesterday. The same poll put Aso’s approval rating at 11 percent. Convincing Voters The DPJ must convince voters that it can govern if it is to unseat the LDP, which has run Japan for all but 10 months since 1955, Hatoyama said. The one interlude, UGG Swell Tallthe 1993 coalition government of Morihiro Hosokawa, collapsed amid internal divisions and allowed the LDP to regain power. “There are many people who, due to the failure of the Hosokawa administration, feel that a change in government means returning to that time of ideological Shox Warriorclashes,” Hatoyama said. “There are still those who aren’t confident about putting the government in the hands of the opposition.”

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