I think I have been wrong about Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama being the 2nd coming of Roh Moo-hyun.  Instead I now think that he is even more incompetent than the late President Roh, because Roh was at least smart enough to wade through the politics of the USFK relocation plan in Korea with little political damage unlike Hatoyama in Japan:

Yukio Hatoyama’s future as Japan’s prime minister could be cut short after he admitted Tuesday that his campaign promise to move all U.S. Marine Corps air operations off Okinawa was ill conceived.

Political analysts say Hatoyama’s inability to “relieve the burden of Okinawa,” which hosts the bulk of the U.S. military in the country, makes him appear weak and could lead to his resignation.

He has yet to announce which of several alternatives he will recommend for shifting Marine air operations on Okinawa once Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is closed. But there have been calls for his resignation, some from his own party, if he fails to produce a favorable plan.

He could be deemed a hindrance by his party if his diminished political standing threatens the outcome of this summer’s Upper House elections. The next election for the Lower House, which selects the prime minister, won’t be held until 2013.

Hatoyama’s approval rating has tanked from 70 percent in September to 20 percent today, and his ruling coalition is in danger of crumbling less than a year after it broke the almost uninterrupted 50-year rule of the Liberal Democratic Party.

“He’s inexperienced and made blunders in handling the Futenma issue,” said John Feffer, a foreign policy expert with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. “He has lodged himself between the rock of Japanese opinion and the hard place of Pentagon pressure.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read a lot more on this issue at the link, but why do journalists continue to call up John Feffer to get quotes?  This is the guy who thinks insinuates US troops are occupiers in South Korea and equates George Bush with Kim Jong-il.

Anyway it looks like the base realignment on Okinawa will happen in some form similar to the original plan, which is significant for Korea since those US military units on Okinawa are there partly to support contingency operations on the Korean peninsula.