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Japan Prime Minister to Face 30 Pct Pay Cut Tokyo, June 3 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government said Friday it will cut the prime minister's monthly pay by 30 pct as part of proposed cuts in the salaries of national public servants. The government will also cut salaries by 20 pct for other cabinet ministers and senior vice ministers and 10 pct for parliamentary secretaries, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said at a press conference. The pay cuts will take effect once a bill on reducing salaries for national public servants is enacted. The cuts will be in place until the...

Kan raps Tokyo Electric's handling of nuclear crisis TOKYO, March 15, Kyodo Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday strongly criticized Tokyo Electric Power Co. for its handling of the earthquake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. ''The TV reported an explosion. But nothing was said to the premier's office for about an hour,'' a Kyodo News reporter overheard Kan saying during a meeting with executives of the power company at its head office. ''What the hell is going on?'' Kan strongly ordered the company not to withdraw its employees from the power plant, which has been facing a series of...

TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday that there is a high risk of elevated levels of radiation from a reactor at the Fukushima nuclear power plant where an explosion occurred earlier in the day, and urged people within 30 kilometers of the plant to stay indoors. "Substantial amounts of radiation are leaking in the area," Mr. Kan said on television at 11 a.m. in Tokyo. "We are making utmost efforts to prevent further explosions or the release of radioactive materials," he said. Early Tuesday morning local time, authorities said that an explosion inside part of the No. 2 reactor...

Japan Premier Apologizes at WWII Ceremony TOKYO—Japan's new liberal prime minister shunned a visit to a shrine that has outraged Asian neighbors for honoring war criminals, breaking from past governments' tradition and instead apologizing Sunday for the suffering World War II caused. Members of the now-opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which ruled Japan nearly continuously since the end of the war, made a point by carrying out their own trip to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan bowed to offer prayers for the war dead at Budokan...

Japan's parliament elected outspoken populist Naoto Kan as prime minister Friday, handing the political veteran the immediate task of rallying his party and reclaiming its mandate for change before elections next month. Kan succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down Wednesday after squandering the public's high hopes with broken campaign promises, including moving a U.S. Marine base off Okinawa island, and financial scandals.