PanOrient News | Fukushima Fired: 'I Cannot Betray the People of Okinawa'

Tokyo -- Showing all the courage and decisiveness that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has so signally lacked, SDP leader and Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety, Social Affairs, and Gender Equality Mizuho Fukushima told a press conference at the SDP headquarters this evening that she refused to betray her word to the people of Okinawa and accept the Henoko airbase plan.

She was consequently fired by Prime Minister Hatoyama and, after a party meeting on Sunday, the SDP is likely to withdraw from the government.

Fukushima's message was simple: Although she very much wanted to continue her important work as a cabinet minister, accepting the Henoko plan would be a clear betrayal of the Japanese people. Politics must be built on trust, and no one could ever trust the SDP again if they didn't stand up against this policy.

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