By Beatrice Jeschek

No change at the top of Japan’s government: Prime Minister Kan is allowed to continue to govern. His party has confirmed him officially as chairman.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan – the fifth Premier within four years – has ruled Japan only for three months and yet he nearly would have lost his power again. His party colleague Ichiro Ozawa challenged the Premier in order to replace him as head of the Democratic Party DPJ.

Now Kan has won the election against Ozawa. The result was – calculated within a complex scheme that weights the votes of MPs, local politicians and party members differently – 721 to 491 points.

Kan achieved significant support from the party base but won only 50 percent of the votes among the Members of Parliament. This could weaken his position further and complicate efforts to reduce the huge state deficit.

Observers believe, however, that Kan’s re-election might offer some political stability until the next parliamentary elections in 2013. Japan urgently needs some consistency to face huge challenges such as economic stagnation, deflation and extremely high national dept.

In order to address these issues Kan will need to get the support of the fraction. At the same time he will have to search compromises with the opposition which controls the Upper House at the election of the Japanese Parliament. The 63-year-old Prime Minister already announced a cutback in expenses.

This article was first published 15/09/2010 on maltastar.com.