The 2010 TIME 100

●Leaders ●Heroes ●Artists ●Thinkers ●Social Networking ●TIME 100 Alumnae ●Essay ●To Our Readers In our annual TIME 100 issue we name the people who most affect our world ● Share ●

Leaders

Yukio Hatoyama

By Ian BurumaThursday, Apr. 29, 2010

Everett Kennedy Brown / EPA / Corbis

Yukio Hatoyama, 63, does not look like a revolutionary. Scion of an old political family and heir to a fortune made in tires, the Japanese Prime Minister was entirely predictable in his early career as a rising politician in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). But while no revolutionary himself, Hatoyama has become the leader of a revolution of a kind. He left the LDP in 1993 and started a new party, which, after merging with other groups, finally broke the LDP's virtual monopoly on power in 2009. The party's goals — a more equal partnership with the U.S., more power to elected politicians, more transparency — are all commendable. But even if they are not swiftly and entirely achieved, Hatoyama has helped change his country from a de facto one-party state into a functioning democracy. That is reason enough for celebration. Buruma is Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College TIME 100 Social-Networking Index: 2,228 Next Dominique Strauss-Kahn ●Email ●Print ● Share ●Facebook ●Twitter ●Tumblr ●LinkedIn ●StumbleUpon ●Reddit ●Digg ●Mixx ●Del.i.cious ●Google+ Follow @TIME

The 2010 TIME 100

●Leaders ●Heroes ●Artists ●Thinkers ●Social Networking ●TIME 100 Alumnae ●Essay ●To Our Readers

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