Japan’s premier Kan survives no-confidence vote

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has survived a no-confidence vote in parliament.

The opposition tabled the motion amid criticism of his handling of the country’s recent triple calamities. But parliament’s lower house rejected it by 293 votes to 152.

To avert defeat and a potential major rebellion in his own ranks, Kan earlier offered to resign, once disaster-related issues have been brought under control.

“I wish to handle issues related to the massive earthquake and once that has been dealt with, and once I have fulfilled my responsibilities, I wish to handover various responsibilities to the younger generation,” he said.

Kan is struggling to control a radiation crisis at the Fukushima atomic plant and to work out how to pay for rebuilding the tsunami-hit northeast region. Japan’s fifth premier is as many years, he has only been in power since last June.

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