PM Fires SDP Leader from Cabinet, SDP to Leave Ruling Coalition

   Social Democratic Party of Japan leader Mizuho Fukushima said on May 30 that SDP will leave the ruling coalition with Democratic Party of Japan. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama fired Fukushima from her cabinet post as consumer affairs minister on May 28 because she refused to admit the government’s decision to keep U.S. military base in Okinawa.