Yukio Hatoyama was elected president of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) on Saturday, but questions remain whether the new leader could steer the scandal-tainted party to accomplish a change of regime in a key election this year.

Saturday's vote came after 66-year-old Ichiro Ozawa resigned as party chief on Monday over a political donations scandal. The whole process, including a debate and policy speeches, were televised to the public, apparently to show DPJ's efforts to rebuild a transparent image.

Despite the scandal, recent public polls showed DPJ still enjoyed a small lead over Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as the preferred ruling party. Hatoyama is thus a hopeful for the next Prime Minister if DPJ could win the powerful lower house election.

However, the vote came just five days after Ozawa's resignation and only DPJ members with Diet seats can cast ballots for the election. Critics said this made it a hastily-called election and the opinion from grass-root organization was largely ignored.

The 62-year-old Hatoyama, the right-handed man of Ichiro Ozawa, had voiced he would follow the policies of Ozawa in order to accomplish a victory in the House of Representatives election which will be held by September.

But the focus of attention lies in whether the leadership under Hatoyama is only a puppet regime of Ozawa. And if it is, it would be difficult for him to usher in a new era for the party.

"Although he is not to blame at all, the image of Mr. Ozawa 'transferring' his power to Mr. Hatoyama is likely to stay until the general election is held," Yoshiaki Kobayashi, a professor at Keio University was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

Another tough challenge facing Hatoyama is whether he can guard himself against accusations with Ozawa's political fund scandal, given the close connection between him and Ozawa.

Ozawa never yield over the scandal even though his top aide was indicted. The Asahi Shimbun said in a Saturday editorial that Ozawa's refusal to offer a detailed and convincing explanation about the allegations only worsened the political fallout. The revelations have cast serious doubts on the party's claims to be "clean" and "open".

Hatoyama also avoided to draw a conclusion about the scandal. Meanwhile, he had promised to let Ozawa continue to play an important role in the party.

Local media already reported that there are some people in the LDP holding the view that they can attack Hatoyama easily on the same Achilles' heel of Ozawa.

Etsushi Tanifuji, a professor of political science at Waseda University, pointed out that Hatoyama now needs to secure Ozawa's cooperation, while maintaining, at the same time, a certain distance from him, according to Kyodo.

Among Hatoyama's policies, most of them are inherited from Ozawa. He is opposed to raising the consumption tax rate but in support of banning political donations from companies and groups, placing restrictions on candidates "inheriting" their constituencies from relatives.

He also vowed to solve a decades-long territorial dispute with Russia over a group of sparsely populated islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia.

In addition, he insisted Japan should not send troops into combat areas abroad to join US-led missions.

Nevertheless, political pundits said even though there is nothing new in DPJ's fresh leader's policies, it is still meaningful to change Ozawa with Hatoyama.

"The DPJ presidential election this time was important from the aspect of how it was conducted, rather than who will be the leader," said Keio's Kobayashi.

He added that the election was a great chance to restore the party from fallout, as Ozawa remained President of DPJ after the scandal already alienated DPJ supporters.

However, although many Japanese are expecting a change in the government, many of them are not sure about DPJ's ability to govern. The country has been, anyway, governed by LDP almost unbrokenly for more than half a century.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2009)