 |
 |
2010/06/02
Hatoyama’s resignation accepted, new President to be elected
|
 |
|
|
On June 2, a General Meeting of DPJ Diet members was held. DPJ President, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his resignation and it was accepted by the meeting.
Hatoyama was received by a warm round of applause, and addressed the gathering, saying, “I have fulfilled my role up until now” and “I am proud of having been able to make a budget for the people.”
Hatoyama referred to measures such as the child allowance, individual household income support for farmers, providing redress for victims of Minamata disease, and increasing the proportion of medical expenses subsidised by central government, saying, “We must place more importance on people’s lives.”
However, Hatoyama went on to say that he felt responsibility for the fact that the Japanese people were no longer prepared to listen to the DPJ, and gave two reasons for this.
The first was that he had been unable to realize the relocation of Futenma base outside of Okinawa prefecture, and as a result had caused trouble both to the residents of Okinawa and of Tokunoshima, and caused the departure of the Social Democratic Party from the coalition government.
Hatoyama said that the second reason was the issue of politics and money. He referred to the fact that although he himself had called for clean politics, leaving the LDP to form New Party Sakigake and the DPJ, one of his secretaries had been convicted of infringing the Political Fund Control Law, and that Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa also faced a similar problem. He stressed, “I intend to step down from my post, and so I said to the Secretary General that I would like to ask him to step down also, and he said that he understood.” He also referred to the money-related issues facing Diet member Chiyomi Kobayashi, and called on her to take responsibility for these.
Following this, Hatoyama said, “We must make our party a clean political party once more. The people will be prepared to listen to the new DPJ, and their opinions will be heard by the party. Furthermore, the party will become one that heeds the people’s voices.”
Hatoyama called on all DPJ members to join together, saying, “Let’s join hands to seize the new era while enduring our difficulties.”
The assembled Diet members acknowledged this message with a round of applause, and it was decided that an election for the new President would be held in the near future.
All the Diet members stood as Hatoyama left the podium.
|
|
|
| ▲このページのトップへ |
|
