Naoto Kan biography

Naoto Kan won a Lower House seat for the first time in 1980 as a member of the Socialist Democratic Federation.

In 1994, Kan joined New Party Sakigake and served as its policy chief when it was part of a coalition government led jointly by the Liberal Democratic and Social Democratic parties.

In 1996, he became health minister under the government of then prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto of the LDP, and made his name by tackling the problem of HIV infections from tainted blood products.

That same year, Kan and Yukio Hatoyama founded the precursor to the present-day Democratic Party.

In 1998, Kan became the party's first leader after it merged with smaller parties.

In 2003, Kan led his party into a merger with the Liberal Party, led by Ichiro Ozawa.

When the Democrats took power in their historic Lower House victory last summer, Kan took up the posts of deputy prime minister and national strategy minister in the government of Prime Minister Hatoyama.

In January, Kan replaced then finance minister Hirohisa Fujii, who resigned for health reasons.

Some people call him "Irakan," or "Irritable Kan," as he is known to be rather short-tempered. But lawmakers close to him say that lately he has become more well-rounded in terms of his personality.