But it was the United States that first undermined the DPJ administration, by testing the new government’s loyalty with an unfeasible plan – originally the brainchild of the George W. Bush-era US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld – to build a new base for the US Marines stationed on Okinawa. The first DPJ prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, miscalculated in believing that a face-to-face meeting with the new American president to discuss long-term matters affecting East Asia could settle the issue.