Crisis could make or break PM

THE catastrophe that has engulfed Japan could also make or break its prime minister, Naoto Kan.

Yesterday he announced that he was personally taking control of crisis management at the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the operator of the damaged nuclear power plant that is spewing radiation.

The company is notorious for an instinct to cover up nuclear problems, and Mr Kan’s action — along with the frequency of his government’s updates — shows greater willingness than previous administrations to be up front with the public.

His response to the earthquake, tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis has shown flickers of the passion he exhibited in his early years as an environmental activist and health minister, instead of the shuffling listlessness Japan has become used to.

“I promise to risk my life on this job,” an emotional Mr Kan told the nation, after surveying the devastation in a helicopter.

Along with tours of disaster sites and midnight meetings with the media, Mr Kan swiftly dispatched the military to help rescue efforts. He opened the door to foreign aid — including former enemies South Korea and China.

An earlier government did not react as decisively after the 1995 earthquake in Kobe that killed 6,400 people. It waffled over sending troops. Emergency food deliveries were delayed, leaving survivors hungry.

Mr Kan’s response offers both risk and opportunity.

If he brings relief to a stricken nation and gets the nuclear crisis under control, he could be hailed as a hero. But boldness can be punished swiftly in Japan at the first signs of failure, and his political enemies will be waiting for an opportunity to pounce.

In a way, though, this is Mr Kan’s kind of crisis.

Unlike arcane wrangles over budgets, the lines between right and wrong are clear; instead of Machiavellian moves to score political points, he can dust off his old ordinary guy image to appeal for unity.

Mr Kan became a household name in 1996 when as health minister, he revealed his ministry’s role in an HIV-tainted blood scandal that had infected 2,000 haemophiliacs a decade earlier. Since then, however, he has become tangled in adultery and pension fund scandals and the vortex of backroom dealmaking that sits at the heart of Japanese politics.

The day of the earthquake, his job was starting to look in jeopardy amid revelations he had received political donations from a foreigner, which is illegal in Japan.

Now that is, at least, temporarily forgotten.

Economic worries

- Concerns are mounting about the possible economic impact of the nuclear and earthquake disasters.

- Japan’s Nikkei index ended down 10.6%. This was on top of a fall of 6.2% on Monday. The combined fall has wiped a staggering €440 billion off the market, in what is the world’s third largest economy.

- Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano told reporters after markets closed it’s too early talk about the possibility of the government buying stocks to support the market. He said markets will eventually stabilise, and that the economy was healthy. Meanwhile, the price of gold, generally seen as a safe haven during global uncertainty, also fell more than 2%.

- Bullion was caught in a global equity rout that wiped out about €465bn in valuations as investors dumped assets considered risky and sought the safety of cash or government debt.