Japan’s finance minister emerged yesterday as the sole strong candidate for the country’s leadership after winning support from key Cabinet colleagues tipped as potential rivals.
Naoto Kan, 63, is widely expected to succeed Yukio Hatoyama today — first as president of the center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and then, after a parliamentary vote, as prime minister.
Support has built quickly for Kan, who achieved popularity in the mid-1990s when as health minister he admitted government culpability in a scandal over HIV-tainted blood products.
Kan took over as finance minister in January and has since advocated a weak yen and pushed for spending cuts and tax increases to contain ballooning public debt.
Tokyo stocks rose more than three percent yesterday, driven in part by news Kan was likely to take over as premier, brokers said.
Kan, who also serves as deputy prime minister, met Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, who had been seen as his most serious potential rival, and afterwards received his public backing.
Okada said he wanted the next premier to tackle the DPJ’s problems with money politics and exercise strong party leadership.
“Provided these two points are met, I told him, I support Mr Kan,” he said.
Okada said he would want to stay on in his post, telling reporters: “I am dedicating myself to my duties as foreign minister.”
Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, who had been seen as another contender for the premiership, also offered his support.
“Our conclusion is, we will back Mr Kan,” he told reporters.
“We were charged with a mission to shift the direction of Japanese politics when a political power change was achieved last year. Mr Kan has been determined to carry it out firmly,” Maehara said.
Hidekazu Kawai, honorary politics professor at Tokyo’s Gakushuin University, said: “Kan is a suitable candidate for a number of DPJ lawmakers as his succession won’t cause extra confusion in the party.”
“DPJ members don’t want to take unnecessary risks now. As Kan is a deputy prime minister, a smooth transition is expected. No matter who will become the next prime minister, very difficult tasks are waiting. That’s why other potential candidates have hesitated to follow suit,” he said.
The only other declared candidate was Shinji Tarutoko, chairman of the party’s environment committee in the lower house.
Newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported earlier that backing for Kan was widening in the ruling party, while the Tokyo Shimbun daily said Kan’s victory was certain and may be uncontested.
Hatoyama quit on Wednesday after less than nine months in office, ending a term that started with an election victory in which his party ended an almost unbroken half-century of conservative rule.
His support fell after he backtracked on a promise to move a US airbase from Okinawa, enraging people there and the pacifist Social Democrats, who quit the ruling coalition.
The departure of the small party weakened the government in the parliament’s upper house ahead of elections for the chamber slated for July 11.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS