Only three months ago, Kan was chosen as the DPJ’s top leader to restore its public image, which had been severely tarnished by political-financing scandals involving his predecessor as prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, and a separate scandal involving Ozawa. Hatoyama’s mismanagement of Japan’s relations with the United States, centered on the relocation of a Marine base in Okinawa, had also dented the DPJ’s standing.