Retiring former PM Kan calls for another change of government in Japan

Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan called for another change of government in the country during his retirement news conference on Tuesday.

Kan, 77, a member of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, will not run in the upcoming general election for the House of Representatives.

“I hope a change of government will be realized again,” he said. “It is desirable for a democracy to have a change of government at least once every few years.”

“I feel that I did everything I could do,” Kan said of his 44-year political career since he was first elected to the Lower House in 1980.

“I was able to do important work,” he continued, noting that he dealt with an HIV-contaminated blood scandal as health minister in 1996 and led the response to the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake as prime minister.

Regarding his controversial visits to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the headquarters of its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, in the midst of the nuclear crisis, Kan said: “I don’t think I was wrong. It was very effective in understanding the situation and responding to it.”

Meanwhile, Kan stressed that there should be more female lawmakers in Japan. “I hope that the ratio of men to women (in parliament) will be 50-50,” he said. “This is what a gender-equal democratic society should look like.”