TOKYO (Reuters) - Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is likely to face fresh pressure to quit after his ruling party's poor performance in local elections Sunday, weakening his clout as he struggles to contain a nuclear crisis and find ways to finance rebuilding from a massive earthquake and tsunami.
Kan is unlikely to step down easily, but the outcome of the polls will likely make it harder to get opposition cooperation in figuring out how to fund rebuilding from disasters that caused up to $300 billion (181 billion pounds) in damage, a tough task given a public debt twice the $5 trillion economy.
Such cooperation is vital given a divided parliament.
Kan's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) lost six out of nine mayoral races in which it faced off directly against its main opposition, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and lagged behind in a spate of city assembly elections across the country, Japanese media reported, although the LDP itself lost seats.
An LDP candidate also romped to victory in a lower house by-election in the former Democratic Party stronghold of Aichi, central Japan, after the DPJ failed even to field a contender.
"The election results show that (voters) have filed a huge complaint against the Kan cabinet over its handling of the disasters," LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki told a late night news conference. "This shows that many voters are worried whether he is really capable."
Kan's critics in the DPJ were also expected to step up their attacks, but the party has no obvious successor in sight. Japanese media said the LDP was considering submitting a no-confidence motion against Kan in coming months -- but more than 70 DPJ lawmakers would have to back the motion for it to pass.
Public opinion polls have shown that most Japanese want a new prime minister, but many would prefer Kan to stay until the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's quake-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is resolved. When that will be is uncertain but it is likely to take many more months at least.
(Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro and Linda Sieg; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
