May 29 2010 17:24
TOKYO, May 29 KYODO
A veteran lawmaker and one of the supreme advisers of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan on Saturday issued what in effect was a call for the party's leader, Yukio Hatoyama, to resign from the prime minister's post to boost the chances of the party's candidates winning in July's House of Councillors election.
''I know I have to support him (Hatoyama) because he said he will continue serving as premier, but I hope he will make up his mind for the sake of the future of the country and its people,'' Kozo Watanabe, former vice speaker of the House of Representatives, said during the recording of a TBS television program.
Hatoyama, under fire for failing to live up to his pledge to move a U.S. military base out of Okinawa after Japan and the United States agreed Friday to relocate the base within the prefecture, suggested that day he would not resign from the post, but offered an apology for the failure.
Watanabe, who is serving his 14th term as a lower house member, also said the DPJ leadership should be sacked if the ruling coalition excluding the Social Democratic Party fails to secure a majority of the upper house in the upcoming election. The SDP, whose leader Mizuho Fukushima was ousted from the Cabinet by Hatoyama on Friday for opposing the relocation accord, is now considering leaving the ruling bloc.
If the DPJ and the People's New Party, another coalition partner, fail to secure the upper house majority, then Hatoyama as well as DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa must both step down from their party posts, he said.
==Kyodo
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