Stanford alumnus and Prime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama M.S. ’72 Ph.D. ’76 said Wednesday he was resigning over his broken campaign promise to move an American Marine base off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

The 63-year-old prime minister faced growing pressure from within his own party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DJP), to resign ahead of July’s upper house elections. His approval ratings had plummeted over his handling of the relocation of the Marine Air Station Futenma, which led him to be seen as an indecisive leader.

Hatoyama is the fourth Japanese prime minister to resign in four years. His government came to power amid high hopes in September 2009 after his party ended decades of rule by the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP).

Hatoyama met and married his wife, Miyuki, during his doctoral studies in operations research at Stanford. They married at Memorial Chapel.