Japan Finance Minister wins key backing for PM post

JAPAN: Japan's finance minister emerged on Thursday as the sole strong candidate for the country's leadership after winning support from key Cabinet colleagues tipped as potential rivals.

Naoto Kan, 63, was widely expected to succeed Yukio Hatoyama on Friday - first as President of the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and then, after a parliamentary vote, as Prime Minister of Asia's biggest economy.

Support has built quickly for Kan, a former grassroots civic activist who achieved popularity in the mid-1990s when as health minister he admitted government culpability in a scandal over HIV-tainted blood products.

Kan took over as finance minister in January and has since advocated a weak yen and pushed for spending cuts and tax increases to contain Japan's ballooning public debt, which is nearing 200 percent of GDP.

Tokyo stocks rose more than three percent on Thursday, driven in part by news Kan was likely to take over as premier, brokers said.

Kan, who also serves as deputy prime minister, met Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, who had been seen as his most serious potential rival, and afterward received his public backing.

Okada said he wanted the next premier to tackle the DPJ's problems with money politics and exercise strong party leadership, and added: "Provided these two points are met, I told him, I support Mr Kan."Tokyo, Thursday, AFP