Japan minority party submits no-confidence measure

Japan's new prime minister easily survived a no-confidence vote Wednesday as his ruling bloc defeated the motion filed by an opposition party in a largely symbolic gesture ahead of national elections next month.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party and its small coalition ally defeated the measure, submitted in the powerful lower house of parliament, wrapping up the last day of the lawmaking session.

Kan's ruling party and its main opponent, Liberal Democrats, are wrangling for the upper hand as they ramp up preparations ahead of elections in the upper house, which is the less powerful of the two chambers, but can still hold up legislation and hinder the ruling party.

The Democrats, who lead coalition majorities in both houses, saw their support plunge under former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, largely because of his broken campaign promise over the relocation of a contentious U.S. Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa.

But voter support has spiked since the party selected Kan to lead the country last week.

The Liberal Democrats had hoped to extend the session of parliament to include a public hearing of the budget committee, which are often nationally televised and provide a public forum for lawmakers to question ruling party policies.

But with support levels high going into the elections, the ruling Democrats opted to end the parliament session on schedule.