Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said on Saturday he wants to maintain the ruling coalition even after firing the leader of a small allied party from her cabinet post. Mizuho Fukushima, ousted as consumer affairs minister on Friday, suggested her Social Democratic Party (SDP) was unlikely to stay in the ruling bloc ahead of an upper house election expected in July, Reuters reported. Hatoyama fired Fukushima for resisting a U.S.-Japan deal on a Marine airbase on southern Okinawa island, widening a rift in his coalition as the election draws near. His decision to give up on a pledge to shift the U.S. Marines' Futenma airbase off the island has angered Okinawans, upset the leftist SDP, and further eroded support for Hatoyama's government over perceived mishandling of the issue. "To have fired me is to abandon the Social Democratic Party," Fukushima was quoted by Japanese media as saying. "We need to make an important decision," she said. -- SPA
