Naoto Kan

Naoto Kan (2011)

Naoto Kan ( Japanese 菅 直 人 , Kan Naoto ; born October 10, 1946 in Ube , Yamaguchi Prefecture ) is a Japanese politician of the Constitutional Democratic Party and a member of the Shūgiin , the lower house. He was co-founder and several times chairman of the Democratic Party (DPJ), from June 8, 2010 to September 2, 2011 also Prime Minister of Japan . Within the party, he is supported by his own faction , the Kan Group (officially 国 の か た ち 研究 会 , kuni no katachi kenkyūkai , "Research Council for the State of the Country").

Political career

Entry into politics

Kan completed his physics studies at the Tōkyō Kōgyō Daigaku ( Tokyo Institute of Technology ) in 1970 and passed the examination as a patent attorney there a year later . In 1974 he opened his own patent office, in the same year he headed the campaign bureau for the 1974 election to Sangiin , the House of Lords, of Fusae Ichikawa , a well-known feminist and campaigner for women's suffrage in Japan. In the Shūgiin election in 1976 and the Sangiin election in 1977 , Kan ran for himself, but without success. In 1977 he joined the "Socialist Citizens League " ( shakai shimin rengō ) from Saburō Eda , two years later he participated in the establishment of the Social Democratic Federation ( 社会 民主 連 合 , shakai minshū rengō ) and became its deputy chairman.

After another failed attempt in 1979, Kan was elected to parliament for the first time in the 1980 Shūgiin election (and has been confirmed in office eight times since then). When the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its majority in 1993, a coalition, in which the Social Democratic Federation was involved , took over after the resulting new elections . Kan became chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Shūgiin. After the anti-LDP coalition failed a year later, the Social Democratic League became part of the New Sakigake Party , which, together with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), enabled the LDP to return to power. Kan became chairman of the political research council ( seisaku chōsakai ) of the new party.

Minister of Health

The Cabinet Hashimoto Kan was founded in 1996 as a health and social affairs minister appointed. During his short term in office, O157 E. coli bacteria appeared in a school cafeteria and a scandal involving HIV- infected blood products in which the ministry had been involved was exposed . He arranged for documents to be published which proved that the ministry had knowingly failed to withdraw the blood from the market. Because of the high level of public interest in the scandal, Kan became one of the most famous and popular politicians in Japan.

Opposition leader

In the same year, 1996, Kan worked with his fellow party member Yukio Hatoyama to prepare the establishment of a new party as an alternative to the ruling LDP and the then largest opposition party, the Shinshinto of Ichiro Ozawa . The Democratic Party united large parts of the New Party Sakigake and the SDP and first appeared in the 1996 Shūgiin election , in which they received around 16% of the proportional vote . Kan initially shared the party chairmanship with Hatoyama, a year later he became sole chairman. By 1998 the DPJ had succeeded in becoming the strongest opposition party: Kan was considered a candidate for the post of prime minister, since a renewed loss of the LDP's majority in view of the continuing economic crisis after the end of the bubble economy did not seem impossible.

Despite the growing success of the Democratic Party, Kan lost support due to internal disputes and a sex scandal over a former television presenter. In 1999 he was not re-elected as chairman, Yukio Hatoyama succeeded him. Kan became Chairman of the Policy Research Council, and a year later became Secretary General. In 2002 he again won the election of party chairman against Katsuya Okada . Under his chairmanship, the DPJ succeeded in the 2003 Shūgiin election to gain a significant increase in seats and for the first time to receive more proportional votes than the LDP. However, Kan resigned the party chairmanship again in 2004 because of a scandal involving missed payments into the pension system, which had also led to the resignation of Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and began the shikoku pilgrimage with a shaved head , which he continued after his resignation as party chairman-prime minister in 2011. From April 2005 he was briefly visiting professor at Hōsei University .

Deputy Prime Minister

After the Democrats won the Shūgiin election in 2009 , the new Prime Minister appointed Yukio Hatoyama Kan as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Economic and Financial Policy, Science and Technology in his cabinet and also made him responsible for the newly created "National Strategy Office" ( kokka senryaku-kyoku ), which controls the creation of the budget centrally and sets political priorities and so, together with the “Conference for the Renewal of Administration” ( gyōsei sasshin kaigi ), is supposed to reduce the influence of the ministerial bureaucracy on political decisions. After the resignation of Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii , Kan became his successor on January 7, 2010, handing over responsibility for science and technology to Tatsuo Kawabata and for the National Strategy Office to Yoshito Sengoku .

After the resignation of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Kan ran for the election of the party leader on June 4, 2010 for his successor. In addition to his own faction, he relied on other party leaders such as Katsuya Okada, Seiji Maehara and Yoshihiko Noda , who wanted to push back the influence of the outgoing Secretary General Ichirō Ozawa. Kan against Shinji Tarutoko clearly won the election among the DPJ MPs from both chambers . He was thus initially elected until autumn 2010.

Reign

     Approval rate and      rejection rate of the cabinet according to surveys of the NHK : In the upper house election campaign the approval ratings collapsed for a short time, in the DPJ election campaign against Ichirō Ozawa they rose for a short time. By December 2010, like Hatoyama's predecessor, they had fallen to below 30%.

On June 4, 2010, Kan was elected Prime Minister in parliament, in the decisive vote in Shūgiin he received 313 votes, in Sangiin , the upper house 123 votes. On June 7, 2010 Kan appointed a new party leadership, on June 8, his cabinet , which was formally appointed by the Tennō on the same day . Most of the ministers were taken over from the previous cabinet, five were newly appointed.

In March 2011 Kan had to publicly admit that he had accepted a donation of 1.04 million yen from a foreigner in violation of the Political Funds Act ( Seiji-shikin-kisei-hō ) . Shortly before, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara had resigned because of a donation from a foreigner. Kan announced on March 11th that he wanted to stay in office because he did not know that the donor was not a Japanese citizen. Its greatest political challenge since March 11, 2011 was the Tōhoku earthquake .

Domestic politics

The session of the parliament ended shortly after Kan took office on June 16, 2010 with a proposed "complaint resolution" in the Sangiin and a failed vote of no confidence by the opposition in the Shūgiin. Shortly before that, Shizuka Kamei , chairman of the coalition partner New People's Party , had resigned from his ministerial office because the Democratic Party had not passed a law to revise the post-privatization initiated in 2001 in the ending session.

Fight against deflation and record spending

In his government statement and at the start of the election campaign for the July 11, 2010 election for the Sangiin , the House of Lords, Kan made the consolidation of the heavily deficit Japanese national budget a priority. He announced that sales tax would have to be increased from five to ten percent to cover increased social spending, but without giving an exact date. In the 2009 election campaign, the Democratic Party, unlike the LDP, ruled out a VAT increase. According to the medium-term financial planning of the government, the new borrowing of bonds is to be limited to 44 trillion yen - in the current fiscal year 2010 it will be 44.3 trillion yen - concrete austerity measures have not been presented. The announcement of the sales tax increase already led to a collapse in approval levels in mid-June, which had been over 60 percent after Kan took office.

During the DPJ primary campaign in September 2010, Kan presented plans for a new stimulus package worth 920 billion yen, which will be financed from reserve funds of the government and which will come into effect shortly without a parliamentary procedure. Another stimulus package of 5.1 trillion. Yen for the current fiscal year 2010, which is supposed to be financed from additional tax revenues and surpluses from the previous year, was decided in the cabinet in October 2010 and passed in the parliament in November 2010.

In December 2010, the Cabinet decided to lower national corporation tax ( hōjinzei ) from its current 30% (plus prefectural corporate taxes ( jigyōzei ) and other local taxes effectively 40%) by five percent and the tax rate for SMEs (profit less than eight million yen), the had already been reduced from 22% to 18% for the fiscal years 2009 and 2010, to 15%. The financing of the resulting loss of income is unclear.

On December 24, 2010, the Kan cabinet approved the draft budget for the year 2011 beginning April 1. At 92.4 trillion yen, it envisaged the highest expenditure ever. As in the previous year, the planned tax revenues were lower than the issue of new bonds. At 44.298 trillion yen, the latter should be 5 billion yen lower than in the draft budget for fiscal year 2010. In the event of a conflict, the budget can be passed without a Sangiin majority; however, Kan sought allies for the next session of parliament, which began in January 2011, and conducted exploratory talks with the conservative LDP split-off Tachiagare Nippon . Its co-chairman Kaoru Yosano led the negotiations, but chairman Takeo Hiranuma and the other members of the Tachiagare Nippon refused to cooperate. Kan also negotiated a renewed collaboration with the Social Democratic Party, whose exit from the ruling coalition in May 2010 contributed to the overthrow of Yukio Hatoyama.

Loss of the upper house majority

Kan formulated the Democratic Party's election goal for the 2010 Sangiin election to be the defense of the 54 seats available for election, through which the party and its parliamentary group members (New People's Party, New Japan Party, Independents / Shinryokufūkai ) a narrow majority of 123 of the 242 seats could hold in the second chamber. This goal was missed, Kan's government no longer has a majority in the upper house, so there is a “twisted parliament” with opposing majorities in the two chambers of parliament.

After the election defeat, Kan announced that he wanted to stay in office and stick to the goal of budget consolidation. Kan repeatedly urged the opposition to participate in austerity measures. Among other things, he wants to reduce the number of seats in both houses of parliament. An offer by the Liberal Democratic Party to work with the government on the budget in return for specific, legally stipulated savings targets, was rejected by the Democratic Party.

Intra-party power struggle and government reshuffle

On September 14, 2010 Kan had to face regular re-election as party chairman . Kan won the fight vote against Ichirō Ozawa and thus continued to secure the office of Japanese Prime Minister. In the subsequent reshuffle of cabinet and party leadership, Kan Ozawa offered the uninfluential position of "party leader" ( daihyō daikō ), which Ozawa refused. The appointments in Kan's reshaped cabinet and the new party leadership are seen as an attempt to roll back Ozawa's influence ( 脱 小 沢 , datsu-Ozawa ) Four ex-socialists and several former DSP members sat in the new cabinet : the opposition and media comments identified cabinet secretary Sengoku as a key figure in the new government.

Under pressure from the opposition to replace the two ministers reprimanded in the Sangiin, Kan carried out another cabinet reshuffle in January 2011 , replacing Sumio Mabuchi and Yoshito Sengoku and for whom he was able to win Kaoru Yosano, who after the rejection of the coalition offer by his party colleagues from which Tachiagare Nippon had left. The appointments are seen as a signal for a renewed attempt at budget consolidation and rapid accession to the Pacific free trade area TPP. Again, Kan avoided the appointment of politicians close to Ichirō Ozawa - the trial of Ozawa began in January.

In February 2011, 16 Ozawa's supporters resigned from the DPJ Shūgiin faction and threatened the passage of laws for the 2011 budget.

At the party conference of the Democratic Party in January 2011, the dissatisfaction of the base with the party leadership in view of the donation scandals and the unclear political course of the Kan cabinet was clearly expressed. Before the uniform regional elections in April 2011 , entire factions in prefecture parliaments threatened to leave the Democratic Party. The regional elections ended with losses for the Democrats.

Tōhoku earthquake, triple GAU in Fukushima and resignation

Kan has a lieutenant general of the JGSDF explain the situation in a high school in the city of Ishinomaki , which was hard hit by the tsunami (April 2011)

From March 2011, the measures of the Kan cabinet and the nuclear power accident crisis management team established for the first time in history ( 原子 力 災害 対 策 本部 , genshiryoku saigai taisaku hombu ) determined immediate disaster relief and dealing with the nuclear power disaster ( see also the chronology of the disaster in Japan in 2011 ) as a result of the Tōhoku -Earthquakes including the Fukushima nuclear disaster Kan's tenure. In view of the catastrophe, the 2011 budget was passed shortly before the start of the fiscal year on March 29, 2011, the first additional budget for around 4 trillion yen for reconstruction passed the parliament in May 2011.

In view of the opposition majority in the Sangiin, the cabinet had to rely on cooperation with the LDP-led opposition for medium-term victim support and reconstruction, which a grand coalition rejected several times and which soon criticized Kan’s crisis management. In June 2011, the opposition therefore requested a vote of no confidence in the Kan cabinet, which Kan's internal party opponents, particularly Ozawa, but also his predecessor Hatoyama, threatened to approve. On the day of the vote, he announced his resignation to the general assembly of the DPJ parliamentary groups in both chambers: he would hand over his office to the younger generation as soon as the main reconstruction measures were in place. The vote of no confidence failed because only Ozawa himself and a few of his supporters abstained by absenteeism, while the majority of the Democratic MPs voted for the cabinet.

After the vote of no confidence, Kan's party leadership formulated three specific conditions for his resignation at the end of June 2011: the passing of the second supplementary budget for fiscal year 2011, which is supposed to finance some reconstruction measures, the passing of a renewable energy law and a law for the issue of further government bonds for financing the budget deficit that the Liberal Democrats blocked for 2011. The deliberations for the second supplementary budget were then completed on schedule on July 25, 2011, and at the beginning of August the government and opposition agreed on a reform of the previously non-income-related child benefit, which the LDP and Kōmeitō had made a condition for their approval of increasing the bond volume. When the laws passed through parliament on August 26th and the conditions for resignation were met, Kan resigned as party leader as announced. The election of Kan's successor took place on August 29, 2011. A day later, the Kan cabinet resigned before Yoshihiko Noda was elected Prime Minister; it was followed on September 2, 2011 by the Noda cabinet .

Foreign policy

Before taking office as prime minister, Kan had little profile on foreign policy issues. At the beginning of his term in office, he emphasized that the US-Japanese alliance should remain the core of Japanese foreign policy, but that relations with China must also be cultivated.

Relations with the People's Republic of China

In autumn 2010, the Senkaku Islands became the subject of a diplomatic conflict with the People's Republic of China, which claimed the islands as Diàoyú Islands as their territory, in the unclear delimitation of interests over the natural gas deposits in the East China Sea . The Kan cabinet is following the policy of previous governments that the islands belong legally to Japan and that there is consequently no territorial dispute to be resolved, but explicitly reassured itself with the ally that the islands are also covered by the security treaty. A renewed offer by the People's Republic to jointly exploit the raw materials near the Senkaku Islands was accordingly rejected by Kan's government - a few months earlier, negotiations had started on joint use of the controversial Chunxiao / Shirakaba gas field, which the Chinese side had been exploiting since 2006 becomes. The opposition LDP called for a more offensive policy from Kan and wanted to expand the role of the self-defense forces.

The video about the incident that had triggered the diplomatic conflict developed into a domestic political dispute: the footage showing the collision of a VR Chinese fishing boat with ships of the coast guard ( Kaijō-hoan-chō , lit. "Authority for Maritime Security") documented, were declared secret and only shown to selected members of the national parliament. However, the video was publicly available on the Internet from November 2010, and the release has been traced to a Coast Guard member who is under investigation. The opposition criticized both the original confidentiality decision and the security measures used to protect data in the Coast Guard.

This information leak and the reaction of the Kan cabinet to the bombing of Yeonpyeong , criticized as too slow and too weak, were taken as an opportunity by the opposition majority in the Sangiin to pass non-binding motions of no confidence ( monseki ketsugian ) against two ministers, Yoshito Sengoku and Sumio Mabuchi.

Military cooperation with the United States

Kan and US President Barack Obama at the APEC summit in Yokohama.

Kan avowedly stood by the agreements reached with the United States on the US military's restructuring plans in Okinawa Prefecture, the rejection of which by the local population had been instrumental in the resignation of Kan's predecessor Hatoyama. The opponents of the base recorded a victory in the local elections in Nago in September 2010 . For the gubernatorial elections in November 2010, the Democratic Party completely renounced a candidate, the governor Hirokazu Nakaima , who was ready to negotiate , was re-elected against the strict base opponent Yōichi Iha, which at least the theoretical possibility for a settlement in agreement with the prefectural government - in exchange for the continuation of special Economic aid - keep it open.

The Kan and Obama administrations agreed in December 2010 on the Japanese payments for the US military presence, the so-called "sympathy budget " ( omoiyari yosan ): the annual contributions are to be frozen until 2016 at 188 billion yen.

In December 2010, both military personnel conducted Exercise Keen Sword in the waters of Okinawa Prefecture , the largest joint maneuver in the history of the Alliance. For the first time, the armed forces of the Republic of Korea participated as an observer. The long-planned exercise took place near the Senkaku Islands claimed by China and shortly after a US-Korean exercise.

Regional economic cooperation

On the occasion of the APEC summit in Yokohama in November 2010, Kan participated as an observer in the deliberations for the Pacific Free Trade Area TPP , but had postponed a final decision on participation until 2011. A possible membership of Japan met with resistance from the Japanese farmers, who are strongly protected from foreign competition by protective tariffs and subsidies.

Constituency

Kan was re-elected twelve times as a member of parliament between 1980 and 2017; the 18th constituency of Tokyo , which includes the cities of Musashino , Koganei and Fuchū , he has won five times with a clear lead since its establishment after the electoral reform of 1994, in 2003 against the strong LDP candidate Kunio Hatoyama . In 2005 he won the only direct mandate for the opposition in the prefecture.

In the landslide defeat of the Democrats in 2012 , he lost the constituency by more than 10,000 votes to the Liberal Democrat Masatada Tsuchiya . He was elected to one of the Democratic Party's three proportional representation in the Tokyo block. He was also defeated by Tsuchiya in the 2014 election, but was able to hold the third and last proportional representation of the Democrats in Tokyo just before Banri Kaieda . In the 2017 Shūgiin election , as a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party that had recently been founded , he managed to narrowly win his constituency for the first time since his resignation as Prime Minister (Kan 40.7%, Tsuchiya 40.3%).

family

Kan has been married to his cousin Nobuko since 1970. The two have two sons, Shinjirō, a veterinarian, and Gentarō, a human rights activist who ran for Shūgiin in the 1st constituency of Okayama in 2003 and 2005, but was clearly defeated by Ichirō Aisawa (LDP) both times .

Publications

• Naoto Kan: As prime minister during the Fukushima crisis. Translated from the Japanese by Frank Rövekamp. Iudicium, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86205-426-8 .

Web links

Commons : Naoto Kan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Georg Blume : The new Prime Minister Naoto Kan promises a cultural break with the old political system - and yet he cannot get away from it. In: The time . June 10, 2010, accessed June 17, 2010 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Naoto Kan, the Purified. In: derStandard.at. June 4, 2010, accessed March 27, 2011 . 
2. ^ Profiles: Naoto Kan. In: BBC News: Asia-Pacific. BBC, September 13, 2010, accessed March 27, 2011 . 
3. ↑ Stephanie Strom: Scandals Cool Japan's Democratic Party. In: The New York Times. December 14, 1998, accessed May 16, 2008 . 
4. ↑ Natsuko Fukue: Kan resumes Shikoku pilgrimage. In: The Japan Times . October 5, 2011, accessed October 5, 2011 . 
5. ↑ 菅 直 人 客 員 教授 が 大 学院 で 初 講義 . 法政 大学 広 報 ・ 広 聴 課 , April 14, 2005, accessed July 17, 2012 (Japanese). 
6. ↑ Alex Martin: Kan front-runner to replace Hatoyama. DPJ rival enters race; Ozawa backing key question. In: The Japan Times . June 3, 2010, accessed June 3, 2010 . 
7. ^ Japan PM Naoto Kan admits foreign donations. In: BBC News . March 11, 2011, accessed March 11, 2011 . 
8. ↑ 首相 に 在 日韓 国人 献 金 １０４ 万 円 受領 認 め る . In: Chūnichi Shimbun . March 11, 2011, archived from the original on March 14, 2011 ; accessed on March 11, 2011 (English). 
9. ↑ Alex Martin: Rocky Diet ends; just 35 bills passed. No-confidence motion vetoed; Kan camp puts focus on polls. In: The Japan Times . June 17, 2010, accessed June 17, 2010 . 
10. ↑ Jun Hongo: Consumption tax hot topic in first debate. In: The Japan Times . June 23, 2010, accessed June 23, 2010 . 
11. ↑ Jun Hongo: Sales tax hike to take a few years: Kan. Talk of increase hits support rate. In: The Japan Times . June 22, 2010, accessed June 23, 2010 . 
12. ↑ Kazuaki Nagata: Fiscal rehab plan issued, draws fire. Specifics on debt, taxes lacking. In: The Japan Times . June 23, 2010, accessed June 23, 2010 . 
13. ↑ Supplementary budget planned to counter yen. In: The Japan Times . October 10, 2010, accessed October 10, 2010 . 
14. ↑ Cabinet OKs ¥ 5.1 trillion extra budget. Sengoku sees little opposition to stimulus plan. In: The Japan Times . October 27, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
15. ↑ Stimulus budget wins Diet passage. Upper House opposition censure motions target Sengoku, Mabuchi. In: The Japan Times . November 27, 2010, accessed November 30, 2010 . 
16. ↑ Cash to offset corporate tax cut elusive. Noda rues expected revenue fall. In: The Japan Times . December 14, 2010, accessed December 14, 2010 . 
17. ↑ Record ¥ 92.4 trillion budget OK'd. In: The Japan Times . December 25, 2010, accessed December 26, 2010 . 
18. ↑ Kanako Takahara: Kan taps Tachiagare as an ally. In: The Japan Times . December 25, 2010, accessed December 26, 2010 . 
19. ↑ Kanako Takahara, Masami Itō: Kan's bid to woo small party flops. Tachiagare Nippon stays outside. In: The Japan Times . December 28, 2010, accessed December 30, 2010 . 
20. ↑ 「た ち あ が れ 日本」 に 連 立 打 診 社 民 、 民主 に 態度 硬化 . (No longer available online.) In: Tōkyō Shimbun . December 26, 2010, archived from the original on December 29, 2010 ; Retrieved December 30, 2010 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
21. ↑ Kan suggests DPJ aims to retain 54 seats in upper house election. (No longer available online.) In: Kyodo News . June 15, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on June 17, 2010 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
22. ↑ Alex Martin: Kan offers opposition budget input. Divided Diet puts leader in difficult bind. In: The Japan Times . August 3, 2010, accessed August 9, 2010 . 
23. ↑ Jun Hongō: Kan proposes to slash Diet ranks. DPJ chief repeats goal of paring fat by year's end, vows to stay on. In: The Japan Times . July 31, 2010, accessed August 9, 2010 . 
24. ↑ DPJ to reject LDP's policy support bid. In: The Japan Times . October 24, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
25. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : Kan stays , September 14, 2010.
26. ↑ 民主党 執行 部 「脱 小 沢」 鮮明 に 、 岡田 氏 「公平 で 透明 な 党 運 営」 . In: Reuters . Retrieved September 19, 2010, September 19, 2010 (Japanese). 
27. ↑ Kan snubs Ozawa supporters reshuffle in Cabinet. In: Mainichi Daily News . September 19, 2010, archived from the original on September 18, 2010 ; Retrieved September 19, 2010 (English). 
28. ↑ Alex Martin: Analysis: Prime minister makes bold move in shutting out Ozawa's influence. In: The Japan Times . September 19, 2010, accessed September 19, 2010 . 
29. ↑ Susumu Okamoto: Is Yoshito Sengoku Japan's real prime minister? In: Asahi Shimbun Weekly. October 14, 2010, archived from the original on October 17, 2010 ; accessed on October 27, 2010 (English). 
30. ↑ Kanako Takahara: Sengoku's growing influence causes a stir. Top government spokesman's power evident in Cabinet shuffle. In: The Japan Times . October 23, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
31. ^ New cabinet points to push fiscal reform. Kan hopes to find spark, keep opposition off back. In: The Japan Times . January 14, 2011, accessed January 14, 2011 . 
32. ↑ Little interest on street for reshuffle. Public expresses impatience with frequent ministerial changes. In: The Japan Times . January 14, 2011, accessed January 14, 2011 . 
33. ↑ Japan PM Naoto Kan reshuffles cabinet to tackle economy. In: BBC News . January 14, 2011, accessed January 14, 2011 . 
34. ^ DPJ regional chapters angry / Candidates reject party support, members leave amid confusion. (No longer available online.) In: Yomiuri Shimbun . January 14, 2011, archived from the original on January 17, 2011 ; accessed on January 14, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
35. ↑ First extra budget moves. In: The Japan Times . May 9, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
36. ^ LDP, New Komeito to seek no-confidence motion against Cabinet. In: The Japan Times . May 28, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
37. ↑ No-confidence vote set for Kan Cabinet. Ozawa allies ready to back opposition tack. In: The Japan Times . June 3, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
38. ↑ Kan offers exit, beats no-confidence vote. Chief's key DPJ foes Ozawa, Hatoyama holster their threat, for now. In: The Japan Times . June 3, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
39. ^ Okada lists three conditions for Kan's exit. Second budget, bond bill, renewable energy quest are top goals. In: The Japan Times . June 3, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
40. ↑ ¥ 2 trillion reconstruction bill clears Diet. In: The Japan Times . July 26, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
41. ↑ Deal on bills looks to pave Kan's way out. Opposition accord puts DPJ on track to pick new leader. In: The Japan Times . August 10, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
42. ↑ DPJ bends on child allowances. In: The Japan Times . August 5, 2011, accessed August 10, 2011 . 
43. ↑ Japan's prime minister resigns ( Memento from January 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ); (FTD, August 26, 2011)
44. ↑ Kan bows out, says he did best he could. Exit after historic times comes amid DPJ turmoil, key bills OK'd. In: The Japan Times . August 26, 2011, accessed August 26, 2011 . 
45. ↑ Masami Itō: Analysis: Kan needs to balance US ties, China's clout. In: The Japan Times . June 5, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
46. ↑ '78 Senkaku 'accord' unrecognized. In: The Japan Times . October 21, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
47. ↑ Clinton: Senkakus subject to security pact. In: The Japan Times . October 25, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
48. ↑ Tokyo nixed joint Senkaku exploitation. Japan stance: isles, resources own territory, not in dispute. In: Japan Times . October 22, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
49. ^ Japan, China agree to get cracking on gas-field pact. In: Japan Times . June 28, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
50. ↑ Mystery equipment spotted at the disputed gas field. In: Japan Times . September 18, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
51. ↑ Maehara warns China on gas field. New foreign minister gets tough on unilateral drilling in the disputed area of ​​East China Sea. In: Japan Times . September 19, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
52. ^ Opposition party aiming to beef up SDF role in guarding against China. (No longer available online.) In: Japan Today / Kyōdō Tsūshin . October 18, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on October 27, 2010 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
53. ^ LDP Calls for Anti-China Resolution over Senkaku Row. In: Jiji Tsūshin . October 18, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
54. ↑ Video Leak Another Black Eye For Kan. (No longer available online.) In: Nihon Keizai Shimbun , morning edition. November 6, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on November 30, 2010 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
55. ↑ LDP slams ruling bloc over leak. No-confidence motions target ministers to stall budget debate. In: The Japan Times . November 16, 2010, accessed November 30, 2010 . 
56. ↑ LDP eyes no-confidence motions over video leak. In: The Japan Times . November 15, 2010, accessed November 30, 2010 . 
57. ↑ Censure motions Kan's death knell? / Opposition could leverage Cabinet attacks to achieve Diet paralysis, Kan's downfall. (No longer available online.) In: The Daily Yomiuri . November 28, 2010, archived from the original on December 1, 2010 ; accessed on November 30, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
58. ↑ Besieged Kan vows to hold helm. In: The Japan Times . November 28, 2010, accessed November 30, 2010 . 
59. ^ Nago election puts Futenma move in doubt. In: The Japan Times . September 14, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
60. ↑ Okinawa gov. wants Futenma talks if reelected. In: Yomiuri Shimbun . October 20, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
61. ↑ Tomohiro Yara: Don't victimize Okinawa over adrift security policy. In: The Japan Times . October 2, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
62. ^ Kan, Obama agree to consult on China. In: The Japan Times . September 25, 2010, accessed October 27, 2010 . 
63. ^ Nakaima victory helps Kan, US Lesser of Futenma foes had economic plan. In: The Japan Times . November 28, 2010, accessed November 30, 2010 . 
64. ↑ Host nation support to stand at ¥ 188 billion until 2016. In: The Japan Times . December 14, 2010, accessed December 14, 2010 . 
65. ^ Strength and power in seas off Japan. In: BBC News . December 13, 2010, accessed December 14, 2010 . 
66. ↑ Japan, US arranging exercise to defend remote islands. (No longer available online.) In: Japan Today. October 4, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on December 14, 2010 (English).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
67. ↑ Kanako Takahara: TPP signals commitment to Asia: Obama. US impatient to join pact after its exclusion from other frameworks. In: The Japan Times . November 14, 2010, accessed December 14, 2010 . 
68. ↑ Kazuaki Nagata: TPP could expedite farm reforms. Cheap imports feared, but as farmers age, change is inevitable. In: The Japan Times . November 14, 2010, accessed December 14, 2010 . 
69. ↑ Yomiuri Shimbun : Shūgiin 2014 election results, majority election, Tokyo Prefecture, constituency 18
70. ↑ Yomiuri Shimbun : Shūgiin 2014 election results, proportional representation, Tokyo block, Minshutō
71. ↑ 菅 直 人 元 首相 が 当選 確 実 東京 １８ 区 、 自 民 の 土屋 正忠 氏 を 破 る . In: Sankei News . October 22, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018 (Japanese). 
72. ↑ The premier's sharpest critic. In: asienspiegel. January 18, 2011, accessed November 27, 2011 .