TOKYO, Nov 5 (AFP) - Naoto Kan, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) who is challenging Junichiro Koizumi for the premiership in Sunday's general election, casts himself as a man of the people.
That image is 57-year-old Kan's biggest asset as he tries to boost his slim chances of toppling his charismatic rival, analysts said.
In this election he has shunned the traditional Japanese tactic of speaking from atop a campaign bus dressed in a suit and party sash, and clasping a bouquet of microphones in white-gloved hands.
Instead, he prefers getting out to shake supporters' hands dressed casually in an open-necked shirt and chinos.
"Mr. Kan's biggest strength can be that he has a grass-roots image and that he is not born into politics, like Mr. Koizumi," said author and political analyst Takayoshi Shibata.
"He appears to be less elitist, relatively closer to the people," he said.
Kan also differs in that respect from the man he succeeded as DPJ president in December 2002, Yukio Hatoyama, the scion of a wealthy political dynasty often referred to as the Japanese Kennedys.
Kan's party claims to fight for those who have been excluded from the structure of vested interests and he has vowed to establish a government which will get rid of wasteful spending and boost employment.
Under his leadership the DPJ has promised unashamedly populist policies including dissolving the money-losing public corporations responsible for highway construction and abolishing Japan's expensive highway tolls.
Kan was first elected to the legislative lower house in 1980 as a candidate from now defunct United Social Democratic Party (USDP), after losing three elections in which he stood as an independent candidate, a member of the dissolved United Social Citizen's Party and a USDP candidate.
Having changed his political affiliations several times as he helped start new parties -- not uncommon in Japanese politics -- Kan served as health minister in a coalition government in 1996 and uncovered the government's failure to prevent the use of HIV-infected blood products for hemophiliacs.
The discovery prompted a public outcry about shady ties among bureaucrats, physicians and pharmaceutical firms and propelled Kan to the height of his popularity.
In 1997 and 1998, newspaper surveys showed he was the public's favourite to be prime minister.
His popularity began to wane, however, as the internal divisions in the Democratic Party of Japan, which he co-founded and first led in 1998, widened.
Public support for Kan was hit further by a sex scandal in which he was implicated with a television anchorwoman in 1998.
Recent polls have indicated a 30 percent personal support rating for Kan, who is known for his short temper and raising his voice to make his point. He has been nicknamed "Ira-Kan" or "fretful Kan".
That compares with the laid-back image of the more popular Koizumi, who enjoys a 60 percent support rate.
Kan was born in 1946 in Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Japan as the second child and only son of a local businessman.
After graduating in physics in 1970 from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, where he was involved in student movement, he became a patent attorney in 1971 and started his own office in 1974.
Kan lives with his wife and two sons in western Tokyo. He lists 'go', an ancient Japanese board game, as one of his pastimes and his man-in-the-street credentials include enjoying drinking 'shochu', a harsh grain spirit.
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