Early life
His hobbies are
go,
shogi and
mahjong.
[1] Kan built a machine to calculate the complicated mahjong point system and applied for a patent in 1973.
[2]After graduating from university, Kan worked at a patent office for four years.
[3] He actively engaged in civic
grassroots movements for years and also served on election campaign staff for
Fusae Ichikawa, a
women's rights activist.
[4]In 1998, his image was affected by allegations of an affair, vigorously denied by both parties, with a television newscaster and media consultant, Yūko Tonomoto.
[5] After
Yukio Hatoyamaresigned as the leader of the
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Kan again took over the position. In July 2003, the DPJ and the
Liberal Party led by
Ichirō Ozawa agreed to form a uniformed opposition party to prepare for the
general election that was anticipated to take place in the fall.
During the campaign of the
election of 2003, the DPJ called the election as the choice of the government between the ruling LDP-bloc and the DPJ, with Kan being presented as the alternative candidate to then Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi. His face was used as the trademark of the campaign against the LDP.
[citation needed]However, in 2004, Kan was accused of unpaid annuities and forced to again resign the position of leader. On May 10, 2004, he officially announced his resignation and made the
Shikoku Pilgrimage. Later, the
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare spokesman apologized, saying the unpaid record was due to an administrative error.
In mid-October 2005, Kan, who turned 60 in 2006, proposed the creation of a new political party to be called the "Dankai (
baby boomer) Party." The initial intent of the party was to offer places of activity for the Japanese baby boomers –
2.7 million of whom began to retire
en masse in 2007.
[edit]Finance Minister
On January 6, 2010, he was picked by
Yukio Hatoyama to be the new Finance Minister, assuming the post in addition to deputy prime minister.
[7] In his first news conference, Kan announced his priority was stimulating growth and took the unusual step of naming a specific dollar-yen level as optimal to help exporters and stimulate the economy. "There are a lot of voices in the business world saying that (the dollar) around ¥95 is appropriate in terms of trade," he said.
[8] Hatoyama appeared to rebuke Kan. "When it comes to foreign exchange, stability is desirable and rapid moves are undesirable. The government basically shouldn't comment on foreign exchange," he told reporters.
[9][edit]Prime Minister
On 2 June 2010,
Yukio Hatoyama announced his intention to resign as the leader of the
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and as Prime Minister, also saying that he had urged his backer in the party,
Ichirō Ozawa, to resign as Secretary General.
[10][11] The Cabinet resigned en masse on the morning of 4 June.
[10] Foreign Minister
Katsuya Okada and Land and Transport Minister
Seiji Maehara, though once considered to be possible successors to Hatoyama, announced their support for Naoto Kan.
[12] Kan, at his age of 63, won the leadership of the DPJ with 291 votes to 129, defeating a relatively unknown Ozawa-backed legislator Shinji Tarutoko, 50,
[10][13] who was leading the environmental policy committee in the lower house of the Diet.
[14]Subsequently, on 4 June, Kan was designated as Prime Minister by the Diet.
[15] Although the Prime Minister is formally appointed by the
Emperor, the
Constitution of Japan explicitly requires the Emperor to appoint whoever is designated by the Diet. On 8 June,
Emperor Akihitoformally appointed Kan as the country's
94th Prime Minister, and the 29th postwar Prime Minister.
Kan's approval ratings fell in the month of June after he proposed an increase in the sales tax rate from 5% to 10%.
[16] His sales tax increase proposal was opposed by
Ichirō Ozawa, amongst others in the DPJ, and the proposal was quickly scaled back by Kan.
[17] The botched sales tax increase proposal was partially blamed for the DPJ's disappointing results in the
July House of Councillors election, where the DPJ lost its majority and were forced to work with smaller, unaffiliated parties (such as
Your Party, the
JCP, and the
SDP) in order to secure passage of bills in the House of Councillors.
[16]Ozawa
challenged Kan's leadership of the DPJ in September. Although it was initially believed that Ozawa had a slight edge among DPJ members of parliament,
[19] in the final vote Kan garnered the support of 206 DPJ lawmakers to Ozawa's 200.
[20] Local rank-and-file party members and activists overwhelmingly supported Kan, and according to opinion polls the wider Japanese public preferred Kan to Ozawa by as much as a 4-1 ratio.
[19]After the leadership challenge, Kan reshuffled his cabinet, which left many prominent members of the pro-Ozawa faction of the DPJ without important posts in the new cabinet.
[21] The cabinet reshuffle also resulted in the promotion of long-time Kan ally
Yoshito Sengoku to Chief Cabinet Secretary. Sengoku has been labeled by the opposition LDP as the "second" Prime Minister of the Kan cabinet.
[22]The Kan government intervened in mid-September to weaken the surging yen by buying U.S. dollars, a move which temporarily relieved Japan's exporters.
[27] The move proved popular with stock brokers, Japanese exporters, and the Japanese public.
[27] It was the first such move by a Japanese government since 2004.
[27] Later, in October, after the yen had offset the intervention and had reached a 15-year high, the Kan cabinet approved a stimulus package worth about 5.1 trillion yen ($62 billion) in order to weaken the yen and fight deflation.
[28] Kan also announced that further interventions are likely if the yen continues to rise.
[29]In November, Kan spoke out forcefully in support of
South Korea and in harsh criticism of
North Korea in the wake of the latter's
bombardment of Yeonpyeong, meanwhile ignoring China's public comments which had not yet included denunciation of the North.
[30]Kan married his wife Nobuko in 1970. They are
first cousins, so their engagement was opposed by their parents.
[31][32] They have two sons, Gentarō and Shinjirō. Gentaro is a civil rights activist and lost in elections for the Lower House in 2003 and 2005. Shinjiro is a
veterinarian and works at an
animal hospital in
Nerima, Tokyo.
[33]
Kan has earned the nicknames 'Ira-Kan' or 'Fretful-Kan' due to his reputed short temper.
[citation needed]
7:36 AM
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