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Naoto Kan, 63, is like Okada and Maehara a first-generation politician and was first elected to parliament in 1980 as a member of the now-defunct Socialist Democratic Federation. He rose to prominence as health minister in the 1990s when he exposed that agency’s role in allowing up to 5,000 Japanese to contract HIV through contaminated blood products. A co-founder of the DPJ in 1998, he was forced to step down as party leader in 2004 after admitting he failed to fully pay his national pension contribution

Japan’s Finance Minister Naoto Kan won the backing of senior Cabinet colleagues to succeed Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister as the ruling party sought to present a united front ahead of upper house elections next month.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said they won’t compete to lead the Democratic Party of Japan. Should Kan be elected tommorow in a vote by DPJ lawmakers, the party would then use its majority in the more powerful lower house to appoint him as prime minister.

The DPJ is rushing to anoint a strong leader to avoid infighting and ensure progress on campaign promises such as expanding the state-owned postal system’s operations. Hatoyama stepped down yesterday after less than nine months in office, citing a broken promise to move U.S. troops off of Okinawa.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average posted its biggest gain in six months today, surpassing other regional benchmarks that rose on increased sales of homes and cars in the U.S. The index climbed 3.2 percent after falling 1.1 percent yesterday.

Hatoyama resigned less than a year after the DPJ took power and overturned half a century of almost uninterrupted one-party rule. His replacement will be Japan’s fifth premier in less than four years and has to revive the party’s fortunes ahead of mid- term elections next month.

Source: financeroll.com