TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara decided Sunday to resign for taking donations from a foreign national, domestic media said, adding to unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s troubles as he battles to keep his own job.

Maehara, a security hawk who favors close ties with the United States and has criticized China’s defense buildup, has been seen as a key contender to replace the embattled Kan if he bows to pressure to step down himself.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, often cited as a possible new leader if Japan’s unpopular prime minister steps down, has decided to resign after criticism for accepting political donations from a foreign national, Kyodo news agency and other Japanese media reported on Sunday.

Maehara’s resignation would be a blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his ruling Democratic Party (DPJ) as Kan fights to keep his job and avoid calling a snap election while trying to enact budget bills in a divided parliament and keeping his own party from unravelling.

March 3 (Reuters) – By Linda Sieg

NAGOYA, Japan, March 3 (Reuters) – With his baseball cap and
heavy local accent, the mayor of this city in Japan’s industrial
heartland is taking on the sombre, dark-suited — and
increasingly unpopular — politicians in Tokyo.

“I want to make it a battle of ideologies,” said Takashi
Kawamura, whose U.S. Tea Party-like pledge to cut taxes and
slash legislators’ salaries swept him to victory as mayor of
Nagoya, a city of two million and capital of a prefecture that
is home to Toyota Motor and other major Japanese
manufacturers whose workers have been an important support base
for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese ruling party elder suggested on Saturday that Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s resignation was an option to win opposition support for bills to enact a workable budget, adding to pressure on the unpopular leader as he struggles with a divided parliament.

Kan, whose support ratings have sunk to about 20 percent, has already been facing pressure from inside and outside his Democratic Party (DPJ) either to quit or call a snap election to break a political deadlock that is keeping Japan from dealing with pressing problems including a massive public debt.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is in a tough battle to keep his job as opposition parties big and small refuse to help pass budget bills in a divided parliament, and rifts deepen in his own party.

Below are scenarios for how Japan’s political drama may play out in the coming months, the policy impact and possible financial market fallout.

TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) – A graduate of the prestigious
University of Tokyo’s economics department, Keishiro Kurabayashi
could have joined a blue-chip firm and begun climbing the
corporate ladder. Instead, he interned at DeNA, then a fledgling
start-up and now a successful social networking and mobile
gaming firm.
    “I thought it was like a rule – I would graduate from Tokyo
University, enter a foreign consulting firm and after years of
study might be ready to start my own firm,” said the
29-year-old. ”The people at DeNA were really smart, but they
weren’t caught up with rules, and that was fun.

“That was a big turning point for me,” said Kurabayashi, who
now runs his own firm.
    Kurabayashi is one of Japan’s “20-something” generation:
many born during a heady “bubble economy” they can’t recall,
coming of age in an era of sliding national status and eyeing
retirement when, many predict, the country’s economic sun will
have set.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Cornered by opponents with no escape in sight, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan could call a snap election in desperation, despite scant hope of victory and little chance of resolving a policy stalemate.

That scenario, while seemingly suicidal, can’t be ruled out as Kan grapples with a fractious ruling party and a divided parliament, where he is struggling to enact a workable budget and start talks on curbing Japan’s massive public debt.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A graduate of the prestigious University of Tokyo’s economics department, Keishiro Kurabayashi could have joined a blue-chip firm and begun climbing the corporate ladder. Instead, he interned at DeNA, then a fledgling start-up and now a successful social networking and mobile gaming firm.

“I thought it was like a rule – I would graduate from Tokyo University, enter a foreign consulting firm and after years of study might be ready to start my own firm,” said the 29-year-old. “The people at DeNA were really smart, but they weren’t caught up with rules, and that was fun.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A maverick politician’s re-election as mayor in the central Japanese city of Nagoya sends a U.S. Tea Party-like message of contempt for the ruling party less than two years after it took power with pledges of sweeping change.

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s DPJ.L defeat in Nagoya and a governor race the same day portends a thrashing in a string of local polls in April, only making it harder for unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan to implement a workable budget and craft tax reforms to curb massive public debt.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A maverick politician’s re-election as mayor in the central Japanese city of Nagoya sends a U.S. Tea Party-like message of contempt for the ruling party less than two years after it took power with pledges of sweeping change.

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s (DPJ) defeat in Nagoya and a governor race the same day portends a thrashing in a string of local polls in April, only making it harder for unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan to implement a workable budget and craft tax reforms to curb massive public debt.