The Real Yukio Hatoyama

Hatoyama's yuai philosophy dates back to his grandfather, the late prime minister Ichiro Hatoyama, who wrote in 1953 of his devotion to "a fraternal revolution" that would "avoid extreme left-wing and right-wing ideologies"—a prescient description of the Third Way of the 1990s. Ichiro was later credited with establishing Japanese conservatism as cofounder of the Liberal Democratic Party; yet he also reached out to the Soviet Union as he normalized diplomatic relations with Moscow in 1956, three years before his death. The Hatoyama family, which spans four generations of politicians, is often likened to the Kennedys for its political longevity. Yukio's great--grandfather was speaker of the lower house of Parliament; his father served as foreign minister, and his younger brother, Kunio, entered politics a decade before Yukio—later serving in several cabinet posts as a senior LDP politician. Both his father and brother were involved in the Yuai Youth Association, which promotes Ichiro's philosophy of fraternal love.

For his part, Hatoyama initially had no interest in politics. In the 1970s, he pursued his passion for science and mathematics and earned a Ph.D. from Stanford in operations research—a discipline designed to optimize organizational decision making. He also fell in love with American culture, dragging fellow Japanese students out to the Stanford Cardinals' practice fields on Saturdays to play intramural touch football (he usually played quarterback and is said to still be able to throw a tight spiral). But in 1976, the year of the bicentennial celebration of U.S. independence, Hatoyama was inspired to go into politics when he saw the exuberance of American patriotism and began to wonder why that was so lacking in his own country. He drew further inspiration from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and John F. Kennedy's liberalism.

After completing his Ph.D. in 1976, Hatoyama moved back to Tokyo to teach management engineering at the university level. A decade later he was first elected as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, but he quickly became disgusted with the seniority-based, corrupt, and cozy ways of the LDP and yearned for a cleaner, more efficient government. As his frustration grew, he formed the Study Group on Utopian Politics with fellow LDP members in 1988, which in 1993 became the foundation for a new party that he helped establish after defecting from the LDP. Freed from the shackles of -ruling-party discipline, Hatoyama started promoting his grandfather's philosophy of yuai, and his opponents often ridiculed him for it. When he formed the first incarnation of the DPJ in 1996, former prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone mocked him for being "soft, like ice cream." But by 1999, perhaps because of Hatoyama's tenacity and growing influence, Nakasone switched course and said Hatoyama had "what it takes to be prime minister."

Now Hatoyama aims to find a new, centrist road for Japan, which is tricky. Blair and Clinton managed to do so in large part because after nearly a generation of Tory and Republican leadership they had a mandate for policy change and had their respective parties behind them. Hatoyama's victory over the entrenched LDP was no less groundbreaking, but his clout, even in his own party, is not so clear. DPJ secretary-general Ichiro Ozawa leads a major faction and is viewed as a "shadow shogun." He could prove a major obstacle to Hatoyama, who lacks the communication skills of a Blair or Clinton that would allow him to appeal directly to the people. Even many of his countrymen find him befuddling—hence his nickname, "The Alien." And Hatoyama himself says he cannot find the right English translation for his yuai philosophy.

During the election, it was easy for Hatoyama to articulate his policies, thanks to the DPJ's "manifesto," which summarized its campaign promises for voters to understand. But he can't hand out brochures about his foreign and economic policy to every world leader, and in a media world of soundbites and one-liners, misperceptions spread easily. So the prime minister will need figure out a way to balance his ideals with reality and then articulate them in a way that makes sense to other leaders and to the Japanese public. This week, as he takes center stage at the United Nations General Assembly, that challenge begins.

© 2009