Japanese ministers must serve longer to show int'l presence: Kan

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IQALUIT, Canada, Feb. 6 Kyodo -
Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan said Saturday that Cabinet members should
serve for at least three or four years to give Japan more of a presence on the
international stage.
''It would be difficult to engage in frank discussions'' with other world
leaders if ministers in Japan are changing over and over, Kan told a news
conference after the two-day finance meeting of the Group of Seven industrial
powers in Canada's far north.
Kan, who became Japan's finance minister in January, said this was the
conclusion he had formed after attending the meeting, which marked his first
major exposure to the international arena.
Kan, also deputy prime minister, is Japan's fourth finance chief in the space
of about one year. He is regarded as a possible candidate to succeed Prime
Minister Yukio Hatoyama, should the Democratic Party of Japan weather its
recent decline in public support and sustain itself in power over the long
term.
Asked whether he wants to remain in his new post for the next three or four
years, Kan said he was not speaking about his personal situation.
''I'm saying in general terms that it would be preferable for anyone taking up
a ministerial post to serve about four years,'' a period equal to a full term
for House of Representative members, he said.
==Kyodo