Naoto Kan

Politician and patent attorney. Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Graduated from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. After a long involvement in citizen movements, he was first elected to the House of Representatives in the 1980 general election in the former Tokyo 7th district as a member of the Social Democratic Union (SDU). After the introduction of the single-seat constituency system, he moved to Tokyo 18th district, and as of 2010, he has been elected 10 times in a row. He served as deputy secretary-general and policy council chairman in the SSDU. In 1993, he joined the parliamentary group "Sakigake Japan New Party". In 1994, he joined the New Party Sakigake and became policy chief. In 1996, he first joined the cabinet as Minister of Health and Welfare in the first Hashimoto Ryutaro Cabinet. In the drug-induced AIDS issue, he apologized directly to hemophilia patients and made the documents public, and worked hard to reach a settlement with AIDS patients. When the Democratic Party was formed in 1996, he was appointed as its representative (political affairs) along with Yukio Hatoyama. After the dissolution of the Shinshinto at the end of 1997, he united the non-Ichiro Ozawa group to form the New Democratic Party the following year and became its leader, but lost to Yukio Hatoyama in the leadership election in September 1999. In December 2002, following Hatoyama's resignation, he became leader again in the leadership election held that same month. Even after the merger with the Liberal Party (leader Ichiro Ozawa) in September 2003 (the party name remained the Democratic Party), he continued to serve as leader, but in May 2004, he resigned, taking responsibility for his own failure to pay national pension insurance premiums and the confusion surrounding the pension system reform bill. He was narrowly defeated by Maehara Seiji (1962-) in the leadership election in September 2005, and again by Ozawa Ichiro in the leadership election in April 2006. He became acting leader of the party in the same month. With the inauguration of the Yukio Hatoyama Cabinet in September 2009, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for National Strategy (also serving as Special Minister of the Cabinet Office for Economic and Fiscal Policy and Science and Technology Policy), and was responsible for implementing the Democratic Party's manifesto of shifting the budget from bureaucratic to politically led, as a budget compilation. He was elected Minister of Finance in January 2010, and when Prime Minister Hatoyama resigned in June of the same year, taking responsibility for the drop in his approval rating due to the Okinawa base issue and political funding issues, he was elected leader of the Democratic Party, and in the same month became the 94th Prime Minister. He placed members of the non-Ichiro Ozawa group in key posts in the party and cabinet, and appealed for a "break away from Ozawa." With the cabinet's approval rating recovering rapidly, he ran in the House of Councillors election, but he was criticized by the public for his comments on the consumption tax issue, and suffered a defeat with far fewer seats than the number up for election, and the ruling party lost its majority in the House of Councillors. In the Democratic Party leadership election in September, he fought against Ichiro Ozawa and was re-elected as leader. After being nominated as prime minister, he reshuffled the party officials and the cabinet. He set a goal of realizing a "society with the least misery" and established the cabinet's policy of a "third way" that would realize a "strong economy, strong finances, and strong social security" in an integrated manner, but in addition to the difficulties of running the government due to the "twisted Diet," he was busy dealing with the collision between a Japan Coast Guard vessel and a Chinese fishing boat in the Senkaku Islands in September, the visit of the Russian president to the Northern Territories, and the issue of joining the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership). Furthermore, disaster prevention became a top priority following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 and the subsequent accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Under these circumstances, he called on the Liberal Democratic Party to form a grand coalition, but it ended in failure, and in June, a movement emerged within the Democratic Party to support a motion of no confidence in the cabinet submitted by the opposition parties, raising the possibility that the motion would pass and the Democratic Party would split. For this reason, he announced that he would resign as soon as a response to the earthquake disaster was in sight. Following the conditions he set for his resignation, "the passage of the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011, the passage of the Renewable Energy Special Measures Bill, and the passage of the Special Government Bond Bill," he resigned as Democratic Party leader on August 26th and stepped down as Prime Minister on September 2nd.

[Satoru Ito]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

政治家、弁理士。山口県生まれ。東京工業大学卒業。市民運動に長くかかわったのち、1980年（昭和55）の総選挙で旧東京7区から社会民主連合（社民連）公認で衆議院議員に初当選。小選挙区制導入後は東京18区に移り、2010年（平成22）の時点で連続10回当選。社民連では副書記長、政策審議会長を歴任した。1993年（平成5）院内会派「さきがけ日本新党」に所属。1994年新党さきがけに所属し政調会長。1996年第一次橋本龍太郎内閣(はしもとりゅうたろうないかく)で厚生大臣として初入閣した。薬害エイズ問題では血友病患者に直接謝罪をするとともに資料公開を実現し、エイズ患者との和解成立に尽力した。1996年の民主党結成では鳩山由紀夫(はとやまゆきお)とともに代表（政務担当）に就任。1997年末の新進党の解党後、非小沢一郎グループを糾合して翌1998年新しい民主党を結党し党首に就任したが、1999年9月の代表選挙では鳩山由紀夫に敗れた。2002年（平成14）12月に鳩山代表の辞任により同月行われた代表選挙でふたたび代表となった。2003年9月の自由党（党首小沢一郎）との合併後も（党名は民主党のまま）、引き続き代表を務めたが、2004年5月、自らの国民年金保険料未納問題と年金制度改革関連法案での混乱の責任をとり辞任。その後2005年9月の代表選挙では前原誠司(まえはらせいじ)（1962―　）に僅差(きんさ)で敗れ、2006年4月の代表選挙でも小沢一郎に敗れた。同月より党代表代行を務める。2009年9月の鳩山由紀夫内閣発足に伴い副総理・国家戦略担当大臣（経済財政政策・科学技術政策担当の内閣府特命大臣を兼任）に就任し、官僚主導から政治主導による予算編成という民主党のマニフェスト実行の責任者となった。2010年1月に財務相、同年6月鳩山首相が沖縄基地問題や政治資金問題などによる支持率低下の責任をとって辞任すると、民主党代表に選出され、同月第94代内閣総理大臣に就任。党および内閣の主要ポストに非小沢一郎グループのメンバーを据え、「脱小沢」をアピールした。内閣支持率の急速な回復を受けて参議院議員選挙に臨んだが、消費税問題での自らの発言などで国民の批判を浴びて改選議席を大きく下回る敗北を喫し、与党は参議院での過半数を失った。9月の民主党代表選では小沢一郎と争い代表に再選され、首班指名後に党役員と内閣の改造を行った。「最小不幸社会」の実現を掲げ、「強い経済、強い財政、強い社会保障」を一体的に実現させていく「第三の道」を内閣の方針としたが、「ねじれ国会」に伴う政権運営の困難さに加え、9月に起こった尖閣諸島(せんかくしょとう)での海上保安庁の艦艇と中国漁船の衝突事件、北方領土へのロシア大統領の訪問、TPP（環太平洋経済提携協定）への参加問題などへの対応に追われた。さらに2011年3月の東日本大震災とそれに伴う福島第一原子力発電所事故の発生により災害対策が最重要課題となった。この状況下で自由民主党に大連立を呼びかけたが不調に終わり、6月には野党提出の内閣不信任決議案に対し、民主党内から同調する動きが出て、決議が可決され民主党が分裂する可能性が高まった。このため震災対応のめどがつきしだい辞任することを表明。自らが示した辞任の条件である「2011年度第2次補正予算案の成立、再生可能エネルギー特別措置法案の成立、特例公債法案の成立」を受けて、8月26日に民主党代表を辞任、9月2日に内閣総理大臣を退任した。

［伊藤　悟］

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