Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Naoto Kan, center, speaks at a Cabinet meeting on compensation over the Fukushima nuclear disaster in May 2011. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Naoto Kan, who as prime minister grappled with a catastrophic nuclear meltdown, is calling it a day after deciding not to seek re-election as a Lower House member.

“I will not run in the next election,” Kan told The Asahi Shimbun on Oct. 21. “Considering my age, I determined that I should withdraw from the Diet.”

The 77-year-old veteran, who has been elected to the Lower House 14 times, served as prime minister from June 2010 to September 2011. He now serves as chief executive adviser with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

CDP leader Kenta Izumi said he was aware of Kan’s wish to retire from the Diet.

“He started his career from a small party when politics was dominated by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party,” Izumi told reporters in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Oct. 21. “His political style was to always stay close to the public.”

He described Kan’s decision as “gracious,” adding that it shows he places high expectations for the next generation.

Kan’s first brush with politics was when he helped Fusae Ichikawa (1893-1981), a campaigner for women’s suffrage who later served in the Upper House, in an election in 1974.

He was elected to the Lower House for the first time in 1980 as a member of the Socialist Democratic Federation.

In 1996, Kan joined the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto as health minister, the first Cabinet portfolio he held.

At the time, he belonged to New Party Sakigake, a partner in the LDP-led coalition government.

Kan gained national prominence when he apologized to hemophilia patients who had contracted HIV via contaminated blood products, acknowledging the state’s responsibility over the scandal.

The same year, Kan and Yukio Hatoyama formed the Democratic Party of Japan and became co-leaders.

The Democratic Party of Japan ousted the LDP from power in a Lower House election in 2009, and Kan served as deputy prime minister in the Hatoyama Cabinet.

In June the following year, Kan formed his own Cabinet and led government efforts to respond to the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

He was forced to step down in September that year following criticism of his handling of the nuclear crisis.

He joined the CDP in 2017.

Kan’s departure will create a vacancy in the Lower House’s Tokyo No. 18 district, which covers the three western cities of Musashino, Koganei and Nishitokyo.

Musashino Mayor Reiko Matsushita may opt to run from the electoral district in the next Lower House election, according to sources.

Now in her second term, the 53-year-old has told her supporters that she is willing to switch to national politics, the sources said.

Matsushita, a former Tokyo assembly member with the now defunct Democratic Party of Japan, has worked closely with Kan.

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