Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of Japan's opposition Democratic party who is strongly placed to become prime minister after elections this month, has condemned “US-led market fundamentalism” and vowed to shield his nation from the effects of untrammelled globalisation.

With the era of US unilateralism ending and worries about the dollar's future role growing, Japan should also work toward regional currency union and political integration in an “East Asian Community”, Mr Hatoyama wrote in an essay published yesterday in the Japanese magazine Voice.

Mr Hatoyama offered a robust defence of his political philosophy of yuai – fraternity – which critics have derided as wishy-washy wishful thinking, but which he declared a “strong, combative concept” and “banner of revolution”.