• Toru Hanai / Reuters

    Japan's former foreign minister Seiji Maehara, center, and his supporters, of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), raise their fists at a meeting in Tokyo on August 26. Maehara is viewed as the front-runner to replace Naoto Kan as Prime Minister.

    Race is on to succeed Naoto Kan as Japanese Prime Minister

    Reuters and the AP report:

    The race to pick Japan's sixth leader in five years was wide open on Friday. Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who came under fire for his response to the massive March tsunami and the radiation crisis it triggered, confirmed his intention to step down at a gathering of ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers, clearing the way for the party to pick a new leader on Monday.

    Former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara is viewed as the front-runner to replace Kan. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Trade Minister Banri Kaieda are also viewed as contenders. Read the full story.

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  • Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

    Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, left, speaks with Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda as they attend a committee meeting in parliament's lower house in Tokyo on August 10.

    Japanese PM Naoto Kan under pressure

    Reuters reports:

    Prospects grew on Wednesday that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan would resign this month, setting the stage for the selection of Japan's sixth leader in five years as the country struggles to rebuild from a massive tsunami, forge a new energy policy in the wake of a nuclear crisis and fix tattered state finances.

    Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who favors paying for bulging social security costs by raising the five percent sales tax, and like Kan sees reining in ballooning public debt as policy priority, is mooted as a leading contender to replace Kan.

  • I wouldn't marry him again, says wife of Japanese Prime Minister

    By David R Arnott, NBC News

    The wife of Japan's Prime Minister told reporters this week that she would not marry him again in another life.

    According to a BBC report, Nobuko Kan said she would want to do something completely different if she had another chance to choose, and her plans would not involve husband Naoko Kan.

    Itsuo Inoye / AP

    Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his wife Nobuko wait for guests arriving for a cultural event at the APEC forum in Yokohama, Japan, in November 2010.

    Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images

    Nobuko Kan, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, holds a copy of her book about her husband during a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday. Japan's outspoken first lady told reporters she would not marry Naoto Kan again if given another life as she showed tough love to the husband now fighting against political rivals and low support ratings.

    Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

    Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan raises his fist with party members during an annual party convention of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in Chiba, east of Tokyo on Wednesday.

    More from BBC reporter Roland Buerk:

    She is renowned for pulling few punches, and her husband has called her his toughest critic. She is famous in Japan for her elegant kimonos - and sharp tongue. The prime minister once described her as his opposition at home. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo she said she regularly scolded him. "I've already lived this life once. It would not be interesting to do the same thing again. I would rather live a totally different life," she said. Mrs Kan has turned the Japanese tradition of publicly downplaying the achievements of loved ones into something of an art form. Last year she wrote a book called What on Earth will change in Japan now you are Prime Minister, describing him as a hopeless cook who lacked dress sense and leadership skills.

    According to Reuters, the prime minister responded to the book's publication by declaring "I am too scared to read it."

  • Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan visits Iwo Jima, prays at grave sites

    By Elena Grothe

    AP moved these images shot today at Iwo Jima by AP photojournalist David Guttenfelder. Read more on Prime Minister Naoto Kan's visit to Iwo Jima HERE and for a PhotoBlog interview with David Guttenfelder about his experience photographing in Afghanistan click HERE.

    David Guttenfelder / AP

    The hulls of destroyed ships lie in the surf along the coast of Iwo Jima island on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. In a rare visit to Iwo Jima, now known in Japan as Ioto, Japan's Prime Minister offered prayers at two recently discovered mass grave sites and vowed to find the more than 12,000 fallen soldiers whose bodies have yet to be recovered from the remote island where some of World War II's fiercest fighting took place.

    David Guttenfelder / AP

    Japanese officials take photographs of one another in front of a World War II era Japanese canon on Iwo Jima island on Tuesday.

    David Guttenfelder / AP

    Helmets and other belongings of Japanese soldiers, who died in the battle for Iwo Jima, lie in the dirt on Tuesday as people exhume the remains of a mass grave site.

    David Guttenfelder / AP

    Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan bows at a mass grave site on Iwo Jima island on Tuesday where officials discovered the remains of Japanese soldiers who died in the battle for Iwo Jima.