FACTBOX: Key facts about Kan, to head Japan strategy

Sat Sep 5, 2009 8:34am EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama said on Saturday he had picked Naoto Kan, a former health minister, to head a powerful new agency, the National Strategy Bureau, that will oversee the budget process and set policy priorities.

Kan has also been chosen to be deputy prime minister.

Following are key facts about Kan.

* Kan, 62, one of the founders of the Democratic Party along with Hatoyama, is a former grassroots activist and is well known among the voters for his fight for an investigation into a government cover-up of HIV-tainted blood imports while he served as health minister in 1996.

* A veteran lawmaker and one of the powerful members of the party, Kan served as the party leader twice in 1996 and 2002. He is also a skilled debater.

* He has suffered from scandals including reports of an extra-marital affair, which he has denied, and of having skipped payments into the public pension system.

* After he resigned as party leader in 2002, Kan shaved his head and went on a walking pilgrimage of 88 Buddhist temples on the island of Shikoku, saying he needed a period of reflection.

* Kan has said the Democrats would aim not only to strengthen the social safety net for those out of work but create jobs in sectors such as agriculture and 'green' technology as part of an "Environmental New Deal."

(Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa and Linda Sieg; editing by Michael Roddy)