The nascent coalition government led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has experienced crucial challenges deriving from differing security policy views among the three parties. In the coming year, the Japan-U.S. deadlock over the transfer of a key U.S. military airfield is expected to keep causing turbulence.
The presence of the Social Democratic Party, which opposes any revisions to the war-renouncing Constitution, will make it tough for the Hatoyama government to set a clear path toward solving the base relocation issue, deepening the Japan-U.S. military alliance, revising the national defense guidelines and countering piracy off Somalia.
The SDP, in a tripartite coalition with Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party), opposes the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa as agreed upon in 2006 between Japan and the U.S.