Japan PM Kan announces resignation

Xinhua, August 26, 2011

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday at the parliament that he would resign as Japan's prime minister after the next chief of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) was elected.

Kan has announced resignation as the head of the DPJ earlier on Friday at a meeting of senior lawmakers of the party following the passage of the renewable energy bill and the bond-issuance bill by the Japanese parliament.

Kan had suggested that he would quit after securing parliamentary passage of the two bills enabling the government to issue deficit-covering bonds in fiscal 2011 and promote the use of renewable energy.

The ruling DPJ is preparing to select its next leader, who is most likely to become Japan's sixth prime minister in five years.

Kan was elected president of the DPJ in last June. He was reelected in the presidential race of the DPJ in last September. He enjoyed a support rate of more than 60 percent shortly after he took office.

But the momentum had not lasted long and Kan has been struggling with a sagging approval rate which dropped to a record low of 15.8 percent in the latest Kyodo poll earlier this month.

Japan's finance minister Yoshihiko Noda, industry minister Banri Kaieda are the front runners in the leadership race scheduled on Aug. 29, while former foreign minister Seiji Maehara has reemerged as another potential candidate to succeed Kan.