Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is scheduled to step down before mid-August, Kyodo News reported late Tuesday, citing a ruling party heavyweight.
Kan is set to resign after securing parliamentary passage of the second extra budget for fiscal 2011 and a bill needed to issue deficit-covering bonds in the year started April, according to the report.
Kan is expected to hold a news conference this week and "to specify when he would leave office in the coming days," Kyodo said, adding that this will depend on the results of his meeting with DPJ
executives Monday night.
If Kan holds a news conference, he is expected to call for opposition parties to cooperate in passing the extra budget and the bill that is essential for the government to secure about 40 percent of the revenue planned in the annual budget for fiscal 2011.
The DPJ-led government is seeking to pass the second supplementary budget by around mid-July to fund additional relief measures for the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami In early June, Kan survived a no-confidence motion by promising he
will turn over his job to the younger generation when certain progress is made in rebuilding the disaster-stricken region and containing the
ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant.