Naoto Kan (菅 直人, Kan Naoto, born 10 October 1946) is a Japanese politician, and former prime minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and designated prime minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. Kan was the first prime minister of Japan since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for more than one year, with predecessors Yukio Hatoyama, Tarō Asō, Yasuo Fukuda, and Shinzō Abe either resigning prematurely or losing an election. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation. Yoshihiko Noda was formally appointed as prime minister on 2 September 2011. On 1 August 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Kan would be one of the members of the UN high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda.
