Japan PM Survives No-Confidence Vote

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence motion against him Thursday, but only after indicating he was ready to step down in the future and appeasing critics in the ruling party who had threatened to support the move submitted by the opposition.

While the prime minister managed to avert a split in his ruling party, it was unclear whether this will ease or aggravate political paralysis as the nation still reels from the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear crisis that followed.

Mr. Kan indicated he would step down once measures to deal with reconstruction from the earthquake and the nuclear crisis were taken care of. Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who is aligned with Mr. Kan's political rival and fellow party member Ichiro Ozawa, said after the bill was defeated that Mr. Kan would step down no later than this summer.

But the opposition, which controls one of the two chambers of parliament and can block enactment of most bills, said Mr. Kan was unfit to lead the nation through the crisis.

"We cannot overcome the challenge of reconstruction from the earthquake under Kan's leadership," said Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party.

The no-confidence motion was voted down 293-152 in parliament's lower house, after some ruling party heavyweights who were expected to vote in favor of it changed their minds following Mr. Kan's surprise announcement.