When Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was swept to power last August in an election that ended over half a century of conservative rule in Japan, he promised widespread change, including a "more equal" relationship with the USA. Yet public frustration at his indecisiveness on diverse issues saw his approval ratings drop to just 17 percent, according to a recent poll. Hatoyama "paid the price of breaking his promise to hit the reset button on politics as usual" and to relocate the Okinawa base, said Jeff Kingston, an expert in Japanese politics at Temple University, Japan Campus. "Hatoyama never really showed he has any political skills or leadership capacity," Kingston said.