Asia, Japan Prime Minister | featured news

Both the upper and lower houses of Japan's parliament elected Finance Minister Naoto Kan to be the nation's new prime minister Friday, following the resignation of Yukio Hatoyama from the post earlier this week.

Japan's prime minister said Tuesday that it will be impossible to move all parts of a key U.S. Marine base out of Okinawa, breaking with past promises to relocate the facility outside the southern island.

Japanese opposition parties vowed on Sunday to pursue a funding scandal that has ensnared a ruling party kingpin ahead of a mid-year election, but stopped short of threatening to delay a budget debate in parliament.