Word: hatoyamas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Blinking in the glare of TV lights and mopping his face with a large handkerchief. Ichiro Hatoyama sat confidently in the Diet last week, waiting to be elected Japan's new Premier and watching the members drop their votes in a black-lacquered box. All the conservative parties had agreed to support Hatoyama. and his only opponent was Mosaburo Suzuki, onetime ricksha boy who has become leader of the Diet's left-wing Socialists. The vote for Ichiro Hatoyama: 254-160. Climbing into his wheelchair, Hatoyama rolled around the chamber on a triumphal tour, brandishing a glass...
Until he could return, Hatoyama entrusted the Liberal Party to his good friend Yoshida. By the time he was de-purged five years later, Hatoyama had been laid low by a stroke, and tough-minded Shigeru Yoshida had grown too attached to the job to relinquish it. Hatoyama bided his time until the conservatives and their business backers began chafing under Yoshida's leadership, and the public began showing its irritation with the remnants of U.S. occupation and those who cooperated with it. All that was then necessary was a shrewd deal across the game tables. Overnight last fall...
This strategy has made Hatoyama's newborn Democrats the dominant party in Japan. Last week they won 185 of the 467 seats in the Diet. Yoshida's Liberals (now guided by Taketora Ogata) were reduced to 112 seats. With nowhere else to go but into coalition with their fellow conservatives. Ogata promptly announced that the Liberals would support Hatoyama. Hatoyama may not be in charge for long, but he talks confidently of carrying on for two years. Out of this alliance may come one strong, conservative party, and with Right and Left Socialists also talking merger...
...Hatoyama, with the help of the Liberals, has a clear majority to conduct the day-to-day business of governing. But he does not have the two-thirds majority necessary for changes in the constitution. A leftward swing in national sentiment chopped another 21 seats away from the Liberals and transferred them to the two Socialist groups. The Socialists differ on many issues (the left-wing group often runs close to the Communist line), but they emphatically agree in their opposition to Japanese rearmament. Counting miscellaneous left-wing Deputies (among them two Communists), the Socialists can block any amendment...
Trade & Cooperation. "Cooperation with the U.S.," says Hatoyama with a polite smile, "is the basic policy of the Japanese government." He also believes that "Soviet intentions toward world domination are still there." Nevertheless, this wealthy and conservative politician is eager to negotiate a peace settlement with the Russians, and is convinced that trade with Communist China is vital to Japan's revival. The statistics suggest otherwise-China accounted for only about 12% of Japan's prewar trade-but the vision whets the desires of many Japanese. "I am convinced that China has no idea of trying to conquer...