Kan's response to disaster in Japan gets passing grade

While it's still too early to hand down a verdict on Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's response to the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in Japan, his interim grades are mixed. Some critics have said Kan has been too soft on the Tokyo Electric Power Company, but Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan Campus, disagrees. Compared to past governments that coddled big industry, he said, Kan has repeatedly taken the power company to task. "What I liked was when he dressed down TEPCO publicly. He was incensed. I think he spoke for the nation."
March 25, 2011 | Associated Press