Japan's main opposition party elects new chief

---

Japan's scandal-shaken main opposition party has chosen political blue-blood Yukio Hatoyama as its leader ahead of a key election battle. — AFP

TOKYO, May 16 (AFP): Japan's scandal-shaken main opposition party Saturday chose political blue-blood Yukio Hatoyama as its leader ahead of a key election battle against Prime Minister Taro Aso this year.
Hatoyama beat his rival Katsuya Okada by 124 votes to 95 to become president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
"I hereby promise to take the lead in achieving a power change," he said after his election by party lawmakers, vowing to "create a politics in which citizens can take centre stage."
Hatoyama, 62, is a fourth-generation politician from one of Japan's most influential political dynasties. One of his grandfathers was a prime minister and another founded tyre maker Bridgestone.
Serving until now as the party's secretary general, Hatoyama replaces Ichiro Ozawa, who resigned as party president Monday over a political donations scandal in which one of his top aides has been indicted.
Hatoyama, who was Ozawa's loyal right-hand man for three years, said Ozawa would continue to play a key role in the party, but has denied he would serve as a "puppet" of the political heavyweight.
The DPJ hopes this year's general election will be its chance to end more than half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headed by Aso, who is also the grandson of a former premier.
Hatoyama has called on his party to revamp Japan's bureaucracy-led politics and to provide better support for people hit hard by the nation's worst recession since World War II amid the global economic downturn.