Japan and the United States agreed to keep a controversial U.S. airbase on Okinawa, patching up a feud between the allies but risking a split in Japan's ruling coalition ahead of a mid-year election. Whatever the outcome of the coalition feud, Prime Minister Hatoyama's image will suffer further among voters who might wonder why he raised Okinawans' hopes only to dash them eight months later. "Many Japanese outside Okinawa are less perturbed by the deal than concerned why he raised it in the first place if he didn't have a plan," said Jeffrey Kingston of Temple University, Japan Campus. "All the goodwill he had when he came into office has been squandered."