TOKYO: The man now frequently tipped as Japan's next prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, is the scion of one of the country's most influential political dynasties, sometimes likened to the Kennedys.

He is the grandson of a former prime minister, the son of a one-time foreign minister, and the brother of a recently resigned Cabinet minister. Another of his grandfathers was the founder of the world's largest tyremaker, Bridgestone.

Soft-spoken Hatoyama, 62, was elected only two months ago as president of the party he co-founded a decade ago, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), to go head-to-head against Prime Minister Taro Aso, also a political blue blood.