[East Asia Summit] Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, 'Political Reformer' in Japan

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is a concentrative politician with taking office on September 16 following a landslide election victory in August, which ended a half-century of conservative rule. Although Hatoyama comes from a prominent Japanese political family which has been called the 'Kennedy family of Japan,' he led to create the Democratic Party of Japan.

Hatoyama, who was born in Bunky, Tokyo, is a fourth generation politician. His paternal great-grandfather, Kazuo Hatoyama, was speaker of the House of Representatives of the Diet of Japan from 1896 to 1897 during the Meiji era. Kazuo later served as the president of Waseda University.

His paternal grandfather, Ichiro Hatoyama, was a major politician; he served as Prime Minister and was a founder and the first President of the Liberal Democratic Party. As Prime Minister, he restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, which cleared the way for Japan's membership in the United Nations.

Hatoyama is the son of Iichiro Hatoyama, who was Foreign Minister for a time. His mother, Yasuko Hatoyama, is a daughter of Shojiro Ishibashi, the founder of Bridgestone Corporation and heir to his significant inheritance.

Yasuko is known as the 'Godmother' within the Japanese political world for her financial contributions to both of her sons' political ambitions. In particular, Yasuko donated billions of yen when Kunio and Yukio co-created the Democratic Party of Japan in 1996 to help establish her sons' fledgling political party.

Hatoyama graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1969 and received a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University in 1976. He met his wife, Miyuki Hatoyama, while studying at Stanford. The couple married in 1975 after she divorced her previous husband.

He worked as a research assistant at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and later moved to Senshu University and was promoted to assistant professor.

Hatoyama ran for a seat in Hokkaido's 38th district and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986 representing the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In 1993 he left the Liberal Democratic Party to form the New Party Sakigake with Naoto Kan, Masayoshi Takemura and Shuhei Tanaka. He and Kan then left to join the newly formed Democratic Party of Japan.

Hatoyama and his younger brother, Kunio Hatoyama, co-created the Democratic Party of Japan in 1996, using billions of yen donated by their mother, Yasuko. Kunio Hatoyama eventually left the Democratic Party of Japan, saying the party had drifted too far to the left from its original centrist roots, and rejoined the Liberal Democratic Party. Hatoyama remained with the party through its merger with several other opposition parties in 1998.

Hatoyama became Chairman of the Democratic Party of Japan and leader of the opposition from 1999 to 2002, after which he resigned to take responsibility for the confusion that arose from rumors of mergers with Ichiro Ozawa's then Liberal Party. He was Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Japan before he succeeded Ozawa as party leader following Ozawa's resignation on May 11, 2009. Hatoyama was chosen by fellow party representatives on May 16, 2009, winning 124 of the 219 votes and defeating rival Katsuya Okada.

Especially, Hatoyama raised hopes for a more unified Asia with his recent overture to create an East Asia community styled after the European Union (EU).

During his visit to Seoul in June, Hatoyama met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and promised not to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, which houses war criminals responsible for atrocities during World War II, as he fully understands the bad feelings here about the Japanese colonial period.

They also pledged to mend historical friction and forge future-oriented ties between the two countries. Hatoyama told Lee that the new Japanese government has the courage to face up to history and wants to develop a constructive and future-oriented relationship with Korea.

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