Disaster-hit Japan faces leadership change

TOKYO: The revolving door to the Japan prime minister's residence is likely to spin again before the end of this month as Naoto Kan bows out to make way for the country's sixth new leader in five years.

The centre-left premier is widely expected to quit within about a week, almost half a year since the devastating March 11 quake and tsunami sorely tested his leadership and turned him into Japan's top anti-nuclear crusader.

The frontrunner to take his post is his finance minister, Yoshihiko Noda, a less divisive figure who has even floated the idea of a grand coalition with the conservative opposition to tackle Japan's problems.

Trade Minister Banri Kaeda and former transport minister Sumio Mabuchi have also thrown their hats into the ring, while others, including former foreign minister Seiji Maehara, are weighing their options.

Whoever takes the job faces urgent challenges, chiefly the need to rebuild from Japan's worst post-war disaster while keeping in check a public debt mountain that is already twice the size of the economy.

"The task of overcoming the ongoing crisis for the nation requires strong leadership from politicians," the Yomiuri daily said in an editorial.

"After Kan steps down, the ruling and opposition parties must first and foremost join hands to establish a strong framework for promoting reconstruction from the disaster."

Given the economic woes now hitting the United States and Europe, the new premier will be at pains to keep Japan's budding post-quake recovery afloat, despite a soaring yen that threatens the nation's export giants.

Then there is the Fukushima nuclear crisis, which has driven tens of thousands from their homes and and battered the farm, fisheries and tourism sectors.

Japan's triple disaster -- which claimed over 20,000 lives, wiped out entire towns and sparked the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl -- also had a huge impact on Japan's political landscape.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011