Japan Premier, Under Pressure to Quit, Drops Plan to Meet With Obama - New York Times

The top government spokesman said Friday that Japan had stopped trying to organize the trip, which was to have taken place in early September. The spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, said that the trip was impossible given “Japan’s current political situation.”

This seemed to be a reference to growing speculation in political circles that Mr. Kan could soon step down — as early as the end of next week, according to some local press reports. That would open the way for an election within his governing Democratic Party to choose a successor.

Some politicians say that this internal party election could happen on Aug. 28 or Aug. 29, though others are calling for the party to hold a longer American-style primary in order to foster a healthy policy debate. Jockeying has begun to succeed Mr. Kan, with a half dozen Democratic lawmakers already putting up their hands.

Mr. Kan has faced growing criticism for what many here see as his ad hoc and inconsistent response to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in March. Mr. Kan, who took office just over a year ago, is also blamed for his perceived inability to point a new direction for a nation that was already gripped by economic and political stagnation before the triple disaster.

In the face of such criticism, Mr. Kan promised in June to step down once he wins passage in Parliament of a series of key bills, which political analysts say he hopes to be the legacy of his short-lived administration. These include a bill to foster use of green energy, and another to fund the costly reconstruction of the tsunami-ravaged northeast, where 20,000 people are dead or missing.

Mr. Kan has tried to make a late comeback by calling for a phasing out of nuclear energy in Japan, hoping to tap the deep misgivings toward atomic power here after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. But he has run into resistance from within his own party, where the nuclear industry holds strong political influence, and skepticism among the Japanese public, who view him as unable to fulfill his promises.

In recent days, Tokyo has been filled with talk of who might replace Mr. Kan. A front-runner is Banri Kaieda, the minister of trade and industry, whose ministry had direct authority over the nuclear power industry. In June, Mr. Kaieda also vowed to resign in a dispute with Mr. Kan over nuclear policy.

But most of the candidates have been younger, untested and relatively unknown lawmakers who seem to lack a strong base of support within the party or the public. This has raised the specter of yet another weak, short-lived prime minister, which could only prolong Japan’s stagnation.

Mr. Kan’s successor would be the sixth new prime minister in five years.

Some candidates have begun calling for a “grand alliance” with the largest opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, in hopes of ending the current stalemate in Parliament, where the opposition controls the upper house. But the formation of such a large and unwieldy coalition could also add to paralysis by yielding watered-down compromises instead of the bolder action many Japanese voters seem to want.

On Friday, Mr. Edano, the spokesman, said that Japan’s foreign minister had conveyed news of Mr. Kan’s cancellation to the U.S. ambassador, John V. Roos. Mr. Edano told reporters that Mr. Roos “showed understanding.”

Japanese news reports said Tokyo was now trying to arrange a meeting between Mr. Kan’s successor, whoever that may be, and the American president on the sidelines of a United Nations general assembly in New York in late September.

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