PROFILE: New premier Yukio Hatoyama tasked to reform Japan

By Chie Matsumoto Sep 16, 2009, 7:20 GMT

   Tokyo - Yukio Hatoyama, who was elected Japan's new prime minister Wednesday, faces the uphill task of making good on his campaign pledges of reform Japan and secure the world's second largest economy's resurgence from recession.

   Hatoyama, 62, a political blueblood whose Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a landslide victory in the August 30 elections to the House of Representatives, follows firmly in his family's footsteps, taking a position once held by his grandfather.

   But there is a twist. While his grandfather, Ichiro, helped found the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Hatoyama's DPJ victory means an end to a half century of nearly unbroken LDP control of Japanese politics.

   Hatoyama's father served the LDP as a foreign minister and a younger brother has held a minister's job in that party.

   The jump into political power is a large one for Hatoyama, who pursued engineering for some years before deciding to enter the family business as an LDP member in 1986. But by 1993, he and other reformers split from the LDP to found a new party, Sakigake.

   Later, he helped establish the DPJ.

   Hatoyama, who admires assassinated US president John F Kennedy, has promised his party will bring change to Japan, taking a page from the playbook of US President Barack Obama and now vows to reform the country.    

   Domestically, the political centrist is committed to reorganizing the bureaucracy and cutting wasteful spending.

   While Hatoyama said he plans to review the LDP goverment's stimulus package, his party's manifesto promises to raise monthly child allowances for children, scrap expressway tolls and gasoline taxes as part of its plan to stimulate consumer spending.

   It said it could secure funds for its proposed programmes by cutting public works projects and increasing domestic demand while at the same time holding off on a sales tax hike for the next four years.

   The new premier also supports an amendment to the pacifist constitution, which was drafted by the United States after World War II and bars Japan from having armed forces with war potential, to allow for military deployments under UN mandates.

   Hatoyama said close relations with Japan's chief ally, the US, should remain a priority, but cautioned that he wanted a 'more equal alliance.'

   In a bid to improve ties with Japan's East Asian neighbours Hatoyama has his party would strive for 'the correct recognition of history.' Toward that end, he would not visit Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which honours more than 2.5 million war dead, including war criminals from World War II.

   The native of the northern island of Hokkaido long served as right-hand man to former party president Ichiro Ozawa, until Ozawa stepped down in May over a scandal about a corporate political contribution.

   While backing his mentor in the scandal, Hatoyama also found himself caught in the misreporting of political contributions. He apologized to the public for using deceased people's names to report about 22 million yen (239,000 dollars) made during 2005-09.

   Ironically, Hatoyama is the richest lawmaker in the more powerful chamber of Japan's Diet, with his mother a scion of the founding family of Bridgestone Co, the world's largest tyre manufacturer.

   Affectionately called 'alien,' both for his tendency to voice personal views off the cuff and simply for his looks, he released a record in 1988 called Take Heart: Fly Away, Peace Dove.

   Studying butterflies and listening to classical music are among his pastime activities.

   Although not considered up to par in Japanese pop culture with his predecessor Taro Aso, Hatoyama still enjoys familiarizing himself with Korean pop culture and says he is easily influenced by TV dramas.

   He and his wife Yukie, a well-known macrobiotic chef, have a son who teaches engineering in Russia.