Tokyo - A Japanese ruling party member turned up the heat on the embattled Prime Minister, Mr Yoshiro Mori, yesterday urging him to resign in late March or early April after next year's budget is enacted.
"The best thing would be for him to voluntarily resign after the budget for the next fiscal year is enacted," Kyodo news agency quoted former foreign minister, Mr Kabun Muto, a senior member of the biggest faction in Mr Mori's Liberal Democratic Party, as saying.
Mr Mori, one of Japan's least popular prime ministers ever with public support ratings of less than 10 per cent, is struggling to cling to his post amid calls to step down.