Yukio Hatoyama was re-elected to his third term Monday as president of the Democratic Party of Japan after a close runoff with longtime partner and rival Naoto Kan, the opposition party's secretary general.
Hatoyama won with 254 votes, or 51 percent of the total, compared with Kan's 242 in a blistering runoff.
Although Kan, 55, gathered slightly more votes from Diet members and authorized candidates for the next Lower House election, Hatoyama, 55, gained twice as many votes from lay supporters and local assembly members, propelling him to another two-year term.