The latest set of economic reports come just a day after Ichiro Ozawa announced that he would run against Kan for leadership of the Democratic Party on Sept. 14.
As Mr. Kan rose to power, he came to embrace the national consensus that Japan should ramp up its use of nuclear energy.
To fend off colleagues joining an opposition no-confidence vote, Japan's embattled prime minister, Naoto Kan, promised vaguely that he would step down after the crisis brought about by March's earthquake and tsunami had passed.
The opposition and many in Mr Kan's own party said he failed to show leadership in the crisis, and was too slow in acknowledging the severity of the disaster.
BBC: Japan PM Naoto Kan announces resignation amid criticism
He speculates that, like Mr Koizumi, Mr Kan might attempt to surround himself with charismatic young politicians to be the face of the next government.
ECONOMIST: The unfathomable Naoto Kan defies both friends and enemies
Mr. Kan said that as a young politician, he believed atomic power was only a transitional energy source.
While he was health minister last year, the populist Naoto Kan announced that the Health and Welfare Ministry was in the process of lifting the ban on oral contraceptives.
"Public disappointment is now so deep that Kan alone cannot restore voters' confidence, " he said.
Early in his career, Mr. Kan developed an interest in renewable energies, and he still proudly shows a fading picture of himself as a young, long-haired legislator visiting a Colorado wind farm.
Even some of Mr Ozawa's supporters concede that Mr Kan is marginally more likely to win, because he enjoys more popular support and the nation is sick of a succession of fly-by-night leaders.
And Japan's latest finance minister, Naoto Kan, has called for a weaker yen (although he received a rebuke from the prime minister for doing so).
The newspapers are united in predicting that PM Kan will have great difficulty getting the cooperation and support he is seeking both from within his own fractious party, and from opposition parties.
So while he is in Japan, the Vice President will meet with Prime Minister Kan.
Now, a day latter, Kan has told a committee in the upper Diet chamber that he did not in fact make any commitment to Hatoyama to resign.
FORBES: Another Round of Musical Chairs or a Grand Coalition?
Kan said excessive currency moves can harm financial stability and that he hopes the Bank of Japan will take appropriate monetary policy steps, according to a Reuters report.
Four months after the accident, Mr. Kan used the bully pulpit of the premiership to declare that he was revising Japan's energy policy, aiming eventually to rid the country of all its nuclear-power plants.
Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) opposed the nomination, saying Daley hadn't shown he was adequately committed to shrinking the department.
Mr Kan again faced criticism in parliament on Monday - with one opposition lawmaker suggesting he had been ill-prepared from the outset.
Mr Kan's biggest drawback is that, unlike Mr Koizumi at the time, he is not popular.
ECONOMIST: The unfathomable Naoto Kan defies both friends and enemies
Mr Kan, who first brought Mr Ozawa into the DPJ, was slow to recognise the liability he had become.
In challenging Naoto Kan, the prime minister, as leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), he threatens to bring down Japan's third government in 12 months.
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