Japanese finance minister Naoto Kan is set to become Japan's next premier today after a ruling party vote ahead of an upper house election next month.
The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has voted Mr Kan as successor to unpopular Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who quit this week to improve his party's chances in an upper house poll the ruling bloc needs to win to avoid policy deadlock.
Mr Kan (63), a fiscal conservative once best known for battling bureaucrats, will become Japan's fifth prime minister in three years, taking the helm as the country struggles to rein in a huge public debt, engineer growth in an ageing society, and manage ties with security ally Washington and a rising China.
"I want this leadership election to be a fresh start to create vigorous Japan and I would like to take the lead," Mr Kan had told his backers ahead of the party vote, to cheers, applause and shouts of "Fight, fight, fight".
"With all of you, I would first would like to compile firm policies or plans to rebuild Japan . . . ahead of the upper house election," Mr Kan said later in his acceptance speech before leaving the stage and pumping his fist in the air.
The wealthy Mr Hatoyama, his voter ratings in tatters, resigned on Wednesday just eight months after the Democrats swept to power pledging to cut waste, wrest control of policy from bureaucrats, and give consumers more cash to stimulate domestic demand.
His abrupt departure has raised concerns among investors that the government will delay efforts to thrash out plans, due out this month, to cut a public debt that is already twice the size of Japan's GDP and to craft a strategy for sustainable growth.
Mr Kan defeated Shinji Tarutoko (50), a little known lawmaker who had won backing from some supporters of party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa.
Mr Ozawa, seen as pulling the strings in Mr Hatoyama's government, also quit his key post as party secretary-general this week in an effort to improve the party's image, tarnished by funding scandals that embroiled Mr Ozawa, Mr Hatoyama and other lawmakers.
Mr Kan, a former health minister who got his start in politics as a grassroots activist, has forged an image as a fiscal conservative and occasional central bank critic since assuming the finance post in January.
If he becomes premier, that could spell bolder steps would be taken to rein in the huge public debt, although he would face opposition from many in his party ahead of the election.
Reuters