Naoto kan biography

I've had no special connections," he said. Popular because of his unorthodox route to the top, he was known as a keen debater. His nickname is "Ira-Kan" - ira being short for irritable - because of his reportedly quick temper. With just three months under his belt as prime minister, Mr Kan survived a leadership challenge by DPJ veteran powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa.

Naoto kan biography: Kan Naoto is a

Mr Kan also received a stinging rebuke by the electorate last July, when the DPJ lost their majority in the upper house of parliament over proposed tax reforms. Married with two sons, he enjoys playing Go, a complicated chess-like board game. Japan's revolving door. Japan PM survives no-confidence vote. Venting from the Fukushima plant began on the morning of 12 March, shortly after Kan's meeting with Tokyo Electric Power Company TEPCO management at the plant, and that afternoon the plant suffered its first explosion.

That evening, following an order from METI Minister Kaieda to begin pumping seawater into the naoto kan biography for emergency cooling purposes, Kan expressed concern that the seawater injection plan may lead to re-criticality, in response to which TEPCO directed plant manager Masao Yoshida to stop pumping an order which Yoshida tacitly ignored.

After further briefings on the issue, Kan directed pumping to continue later that evening. Several weeks later, Shinzo Abe circulated information that Kan had ordered pumping to stop, which the Yomiuri Shimbun and other news outlets reported as fact, and opposition leader Sadakazu Tanigaki accused the government of causing the Fukushima meltdowns.

Early in the morning of 15 March, amid rumors that TEPCO intended to abandon the plant and allow a full meltdown that would potentially trigger an evacuation of the entire Kanto region, Kan ordered the establishment of a joint response headquarters between the government and TEPCO, and personally traveled to TEPCO headquarters on half an hour's notice.

While this move initially antagonized TEPCO, it was later positively evaluated as improving communications between the plant operator and government agencies such as the Self-Defense Forces and Tokyo Fire Department. Kan slept in the Prime Minister's Office and did not return home for an entire week after the disaster struck; he wore blue coveralls instead of a suit until the end of March.

Kan took an increasingly anti-nuclear stance in the months following the Fukushima disaster. Despite falling popularity, Kan rejected calls to step down while the country continued to suffer from the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crises of spring One year into his premiership on 2 JuneKan proposed his resignation, hours before the Diet put forward a vote of no-confidence.

The motion was defeated by tobolstering the Prime Minister's position. In JulyKan said that Japan must reduce its dependence on nuclear energy, breaking with a decades-old Japanese government drive to build more nuclear power plants in the country.

Naoto kan biography: Naoto Kan is a Japanese

He wants to "pass a bill to promote renewable energy and questioned whether private companies should be running atomic plants". When interviewed inafter resigning as prime minister, Kan said the Fukushima accident made it clear to him that "Japan needs to dramatically reduce its dependence on nuclear powerwhich supplied 30 percent of its electricity before the crisis, and has turned him into a believer of renewable energy.

Kan announced his intention to resign on 10 August At the same time, Seiji Maeharawho had supported Kan inwas reported to have announced his intention to run to succeed Kan. Maehara was seen as the potential DPJ candidate most popular with the voters at the time, [ 49 ] but several other cabinet members joined the race, and the election of the DPJ successor was scheduled for 29 August.

At that time, Yoshihiko Nodamost recently finance minister, was elected as the new DPJ leader and, as leader of the largest party in the Diet, became prime minister as well. During 16 December Tokyo gubernatorial electioncalled due to the resignation of incumbent Governor Shintaro Ishiharathe Democratic Party of Japan itself did not endorse any candidate, [ 50 ] but Kan supported Kenji Utsunomiya leftist lawyer[ 51 ] who shared Kan's anti-nuclear stance.

Ultimately Utsunomiya came second in the election, losing to Naoki Inose [ 52 ] who had been vice-governor under Ishihara from toand then acting governor after Ishihara's abrupt resignation. In the general election called by Kan's successor Noda, Kan lost his seat in the Tokyo 18th district[ 53 ] but retained a seat in the diet through the proportional representation system.

Naoto kan biography: Naoto Kan (born 10

He joined the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan along with the liberal-leaning members of the Democratic Party following the party split prior to the general election. In the election, he regained his district seat, defeating the LDP incumbent Masatada Tsuchiya with a margin of 1, votes. InKan stated publicly he would not run for a seat in the House of Representatives again.

He further said that he would "still probably be involved in politics someway". Kan married his wife Nobuko in He later served as political secretary to his father and was elected to the Musashino City Council in December Kan is nicknamed "Ira-Kan" Fretful Kan" due to his reputed short temper. Both works portray Kan's role in the Fukushima crisis from a highly critical perspective.

The docu-drama The Seal of the Sun90 min. The film delves into the 3. In this interview, executive producer Tachibana discusses why he created the film:. At the time, I was simply a friend, one of his cadets in politics. It was only after the earthquake that I became a real member of his support group. It is not to reproduce the experience of the crisis experienced by Naoto Kan that I produced this film.

The media and public opinion, manipulated by the latter, were totally hostile to the Prime Minister, accusing him of having aggravated the accident and amplified the damage. Faced with this rejection, I was plagued by anger and disgust as they led me to make this film to put things in order. Naoto Kan was the only one to have guessed the extreme gravity of the accident and to have realized that we naoto kan biography one step away from the collapse of Japan.

If he had not been Prime Minister, if the crisis had to be managed by another in his place, the country could have been completely destroyed. On a recent interview producer Mary Beth Brangan stated that it was the Fukushima accident what set her and her life partner James Heddle into the making of that film. Bradfordand nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersenwhere they discussed nuclear power's risks.

In his concluding statement Prime Minister Kan stated:. I began to think there is only one way to deal with this risk I realized, we need a society that has no nuclear power. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wikidata item.

Prime Minister of Japan from to You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. October Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Japanese article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translateis a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.

Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. He is known for his outspoken personality, earning him the nickname "Ira-Kan. Despite his efforts to address Japan's economic challenges, Kan's popularity waned due to his handling of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in He resigned as Prime Minister in Contact About Privacy.

Aritomo Yamagata. Read Change Change source View history. Tools Tools. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. His Excellency. References [ change change source ]. The Washington Post. ISSN Retrieved 11 April The Guardian.