The victory of incumbent Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto in Tuesday's election for the presidency of the governing centrist Democratic Party of Japan over former DPJ secretary-general Ozawa Ichiro will both allow Kan to avoid the fate of being a "three - month" prime minister and exercise significant influence on the political situation in Northeast Asia.
First, most observers believed that Ozawa's diplomatic policy stance was more inclined to "move close to China and distant from the U.S." or even to use the objections of the majority of Okinawan people to the continuation of U.S. bases, to pressure Washington to agree to remove the controversial U.S. Marine Corps Air Base at Futenma.
