Expectations are high for Japan’s new prime minister, Naoto Kan, who has taken over the reins of a country saddled with massive public debt and a domestic furor over the failure of the former head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and newly resigned premier Yukio Hatoyama to deliver on his campaign pledge to move the controversial U.S. military base out of the island of Okinawa. "Kan is a skilled politician who cares about policy issues. His election has refocused attention as to why voters wanted the DPJ last summer," says Jeff Kingston, a Japan specialist at Temple University, Japan Campus.