2010-06-04 07:59

Japan's Finance Minister Naoto Kan speaks to journalists during a news conference at the Democratic Party of Japan's headquarters in Tokyo June 3, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

TOKYO - Finance Minister Naoto Kan, a fiscal conservative with an image as a challenger to the status quo, looked set to become Japan's next premier on Friday, media said, in a ruling party vote ahead of an election next month.

Kan, 63, would become Japan's fifth prime minister in three years, taking the helm as the country struggles to rein in a huge public debt, engineer growth in an ageing society, and manage ties with the United States and China.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will vote later in the day to select a successor to unpopular Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who quit abruptly this week to improve his party's chances in a July upper house poll that the ruling bloc needs to win to avoid policy deadlock.

Hatoyama, his voter ratings in tatters, resigned on Wednesday just eight months after the Democrats swept to power pledging to cut waste, wrest control of policy from bureaucrats, and give consumers more cash to stimulate domestic demand.

His abrupt departure has raised concerns among investors that the government will delay efforts to thrash out plans, due out this month, to cut a public debt that is already twice the size of Japan's GDP and to craft a strategy for sustainable growth.

Japanese media said Kan was likely to defeat Shinji Tarutoko, 50, a little known lawmaker who had won backing from some supporters of Democratic Party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa.

Ozawa, seen as pulling the strings in Hatoyama's government, also quit his key post as party secretary-general this week in an effort to improve the party's image, tarnished by funding scandals that embroiled Ozawa, Hatoyama and other lawmakers.