Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, is about to become that country’s next Prime Minister. His ascendancy figures to mark a significant, thought not seismic, shift in Japanese policty. The Liberal Democratic Party has led Japan almost without interruption since World War II. The LDP’s economic policy is mercantilist, and its foreign policy traditionally revolves around close military and political ties with the United States. Yukio Hatoyama is not like to significantly change either.
Yukio Hatoyama Biography
Yukio Hatoyama comes from a traditional Japanese political family. His grandfather Ichirō Hatoyama served three terms as Japan’s Prime Minister in the mid-1950’s. His maternal grandfather founded the Bridgestone tire company.
Yukio Hatoyama graduated from the elite University of Tokyo, and later gained a Ph.D in engineering from Stanford University. He is from the fourth generation of Hatoyamas to serve in the Diet, having been elected to his father’s seat in the House of Representatives after working as an assistant professor at Senshu University. He has been a professional politician since 1986.
Yukio Hatoyama was one of the founding member of the Democratic Party of Japan, which represented a merger of Japanese opposition parties. The DPJ is a coalition party containing conservatives, radicals, and socialists. Yukio Hatoyama’s brother Kunio Hatoyama is also a politician.
Yukio Hatoyama serves as the chairman of the Touch Football Association of Japan and the Guide Dogs & Service Dogs Association of Japan.
Yukio Hatoyama’s Political Views
Set in an American context, Yukio Hatoyama’s political views seem to fall in the category of what we call left-liberal. What that means in a Japanese context isn’t quite clear. In a key statement of his political platform, reprinted in the New York Times, Hatoyama set himself firmly against creeping globalism.
This is a strange point of view coming from a Japanese politician. Japan is one of the most “globalist” countries in the world. It has run large current account surpluses for many years and has amassed foreign reserves surpassed only by those of China. For Japan to turn against globalism is not only unthinkable, it’s impossible.
A clearer understanding of what Hatoyama means by “globalism” can be gained from the Times article mentioned above. In it, he seems to see the U.S. military presence in Asia as a stabilizing force, while regarding the U.S. economic presence as undesirable, at least in terms of the influence of U.S. multi-national corporations and the pervasiveness of Anglo-Saxon “free-market” economic theory. Since Japan has never subscribed to U.S.-style economic liberalism, this seems largely irrelevant.
Yukio Hatoyama has in the past said that Japan should seek to diversify its vast foreign reserves away from the declining U.S. Dollar. He has since backed away from those views, but there’s little doubt that Asians from many countries are growing impatient with their dependence on the Dollar. This represents more of a long-term problem for the U.S. than it is the likely catalyst for a currency crisis. However, most Asian nations are looking diversify away from Dollar dependence.
The most significant changes arising from the election of Yukio Hatoyama are likely to be in the domestic realm. He has signaled that he wants to shift Japanese government spending away from the kind of infrastructure projects favored by the LDP as a antidote for economic stagnation, and towards enlarging the domestic safety net for displaced workers, pensioners, and working families.
Yukio Hatoyama is not a “commie” or probably even a socialist. His foreign policy will likely continue to emphasize the close relationship with the United States while building the pan-Asian ties that will put Japan more closely in tune with China’s ascendancy as a great power.
In short, the United States has little to fear from a power-shift in Japan. Yukio Hatoyama’s election is unlikely to alter the existing close relationship, both economic and military, between our two countries.
Related Links
Yukio Hatoyama’s ciriculum vitae
List of past Japanese Prime Ministers
