NewsBreakingOnline

Ruling DPJ plans vote on Monday after criticism of leader following tsunami and Fukushima disasters Japan is expected to get its seventh leader in six years early next week, after the prime minister, Naoto Kan, confirmed he would resign in the midst of the country’s worst crisis since the second world war. Kan, who is battling record-low approval ratings over the aftermath of the 11 March tsunami, had promised to step down once parliament has passed a series of bills, including those to fund rebuilding and promote renewable energy. One of those bills has passed and the other two expected to win parliamentary support this week, paving the way for the governing Democratic party of Japan [DPJ] to elect a new leader on Monday. Whoever wins the contest will be approved as prime minister the following day as leader of the largest party in the lower house. The most likely successor emerged on Monday, when Kan’s former foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, announced he would run. The 49-year-old, who remains popular despite resigning in early March over a minor funding scandal , could run against his DPJ ally, the finance minister, Yoshihiko Noda, and the trade minister, Banri Kaieda. At least three other MPs are considering running, Japanese media reported, including the agriculture minister, Michihiko Kano, a veteran politician who is seen as dull but dependable. Kan said on Wednesday thathe would resign as DPJ president if the two outstanding bills were passed, as expected, this Friday. “Then, when a new [party] leader is chosen, I will quit as prime minister,” he told a parliamentary panel. Kan finds himself in the unusual position of leading a popular movement against nuclear power following the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, but also of presiding over a deeply unpopular government. A Kyodo News poll on Sunday showed approval for Kan’s cabinet at 15.8%; yet in the same survey, more than 75% of respondents said they backed his plan to scrap nuclear power. Of the leading candidates, Maehara is closest to Kan on energy policy, saying Japan should phase out nuclear power over the next 20 years. In 2009, the DPJ ended more than 50