Japan's opposition chooses new leader

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Japan's opposition party, the Democratic Party, on Saturday chose Yukio Hatoyama as its leader for elections later this year.

Hatoyama, the grandson of a former Japanese prime minister, replaced Ichiro Ozawa, who resigned from his post following a scandal over fundraising earlier this month.

Hatoyama and the Democrats have promised to reduce wasteful spending and cut bureaucracy. He has also pledged to increase domestic demand during the ongoing recession, the worst in sixty years.

The general elections are expected to be held in October. According to local opinion polls taken on Saturday, the Democrats may have an edge over Prime Minister Taro Aso's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has remained in power for five decades.

Ozawa, the previous leader of elections, resigned on May 11 after an aide was accused in a fundraising fiasco in March. Prosecutors charged Ozawa had taken illegal donations totaling 21 million yen from the Nishimatsu Construction firm in the years 2003-2007.


Sources
{"cc_re__cc_re__cc_by_2_5": ["/ul>\n\t        <p>This page is not available in other languages.</p>\n\t    </section>\n\t</div>\t<div class=\"minerva-footer-logo\"><img src=\"/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikinews-wordmark-en.svg\" alt=\"Wikinews\" width=\"146\" height=\"21\"\n\tstyle=\"width: 9.125em; height: 1.3125em;\"/>\n\n</div>\n\t\t\t<ul id=\"footer-info\" class=\"footer-info hlist hlist-separated\">\n\t<li id=\"footer-info-lastmod\"> This page was last edited on 25 July 2019, at 20:50.</li>\n\t<li id=\"footer-info-copyright\">Content is available under <a class=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/\">CC BY 2.5</a> unless otherwise noted.</li>\n</ul>\n\n\t\t\t<ul id=\"footer-places\" class=\"footer-places hlist hlist-separated\">\n\t<li id=\"footer-places-privacy\"><a href=\"https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Policy:Privacy_policy\">Privacy policy</a></li>\n\t<li id=\"footer-places-about\"><a href=\"/wiki/Wikinews:About\">About Wikinews</a></li>\n\t<li id=\"footer-places-disclaimers\"><a href=\"/wiki/Wikinews:General_disclaimer\">Disclaimers</a></li>\n\t<li id=\"footer-places-wm-codeofconduct\"><a href"], "copyright__copyright__copyright": ["d to be held in October. According to local opinion polls taken on Saturday, the Democrats may have an edge over Prime Minister Taro Aso's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has remained in power for five decades.\n\nOzawa, the previous leader of elections, resigned on May 11 after an aide was accused in a fundraising fiasco in March. Prosecutors charged Ozawa had taken illegal donations totaling 21 million yen from the Nishimatsu Construction firm in the years 2003-2007.\n\n\nSources", "d to be held in October. According to local opinion polls taken on Saturday, the Democrats may have an edge over Prime Minister Taro Aso's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has remained in power for five decades.\n\nOzawa, the previous leader of elections, resigned on May 11 after an aide was accused in a fundraising fiasco in March. Prosecutors charged Ozawa had taken illegal donations totaling 21 million yen from the Nishimatsu Construction firm in the years 2003-2007.\n\n\nSources", "d to be held in October. According to local opinion polls taken on Saturday, the Democrats may have an edge over Prime Minister Taro Aso's conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has remained in power for five decades.\n\nOzawa, the previous leader of elections, resigned on May 11 after an aide was accused in a fundraising fiasco in March. Prosecutors charged Ozawa had taken illegal donations totaling 21 million yen from the Nishimatsu Construction firm in the years 2003-2007.\n\n\nSources"]}