Naoto Kan, Japan’s new prime minister, is a former left-wing activist turned fiscal hawk, known for his sharp debating skills, quick temper and willingness to butt heads with state bureaucrats.
Nicknamed Ira-Kan or “Irritable Kan” for his fiery outbursts, the former finance minister also has a populist flair and has long been a top player in the party he co-founded with outgoing prime minister Yukio Hatoyama.
The 63-year-old gained popularity in the mid-1990s when, during a stint as health minister, he revealed government culpability in a scandal over HIV-tainted blood products.
Unlike Hatoyama and many other Japanese lawmakers, Kan was not born into a political dynasty, but gained his first parliamentary seat through tough campaigning, winning a seat on his fourth try in 1980.
He was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in the west of the main island of Honshu, the son of a factory manager.
A graduate of applied sciences from the prestigious Tokyo Institute of Technology, Kan once invented a points calculator for the board game mah-jong.
“If all had gone well, I would have become quite rich, even if not quite as rich as Bill Gates,” he said in an interview, recounting how he unsuccessfully pitched his prototype to Nintendo and other electronics makers. “I became a politician because nobody put up money for my invention.”
Not all of Kan’s political career has been plain sailing.
He had to step down during a previous stint as Democratic Party of Japan leader, in 2004, after admitting failing to pay full state pension contributions, having earlier attacked ruling party lawmakers for their failure to do so.
In a display of atonement, Kan shaved his head, donned a Buddhist robe and went on a pilgrimage of temples on the island of Shikoku.
He became a leading civic activist in the 1970s, pushing for a variety of pacifist and environmental causes as the protege of a well-known feminist campaigner.
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