Naoto Kan said Friday that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda's resignation the same day over a pension payment scandal has not swayed his decision to stay on as leader of the Democratic Party of Japan.

Kan said he wants to use the scandal, which involves him and a number of other ruling and opposition lawmakers, to push for full-scale reform of the national pension system.

But many are still calling for his resignation, both from inside and outside the DPJ.

Senior DPJ officials meanwhile tried to defend Kan. His case is different from that of Fukuda, who bears a more grave responsibility, they claimed.

"It is my understanding that Fukuda made the decision from the standpoint of chief Cabinet secretary," Kan told reporters. "I must make a case of good coming out of evil in a way that would lead to reform, which will benefit the people at large."

Kan had severely criticized Cabinet members who failed to pay their mandatory pension premiums in the past. Last week, however, he admitted he was among them, having failed to pay between January and October 1996, while he was, of all things, minister of welfare.

He claimed he was removed from the national pension program without notice when he accepted the Cabinet position, and joined a mutual association for national public service personnel that did not cover his pension program.

Kan said Friday that he has asked the Social Insurance Agency, which is in charge of the national pension program, to allow him to pay the unpaid premiums.

During his apology to DPJ members in the Diet, some rank-and-file party members jeered him and called for a change in leadership.

Some DPJ lawmakers have reportedly voiced concern that the party would face an uphill battle in July's House of Councilors election if Kan remains at the helm.

Also at a gathering held at party headquarters later in the day, many DPJ members urged Kan to step down, saying that for whatever the reason, he should take responsibility for failing to pay his pension premiums, a senior party member said.

"Having severely criticized those Cabinet ministers who failed to pay their premium payments, Kan also should take responsibility, because it has turned out that he also didn't pay," DPJ member Hirofumi Hirano told reporters as he exited the meeting.

We "have reached the limit" in supporting Kan, another party member said. "Seeing things from the voters' point of view, we cannot live up to their expectations (if Kan stays on). I want him to decide on his own course of action."

But DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada reckoned Kan's case is different from that of Fukuda. He said Fukuda's resignation was only a matter of time because he had withheld information about his own premium payments, knowing he had not paid.

Okada also denied that a majority in the DPJ are calling for Kan's resignation.

"I have a strong sense that the DPJ would not be trusted by the public as a party that could come to power if Kan were dragged down from the post of party leader," he told reporters after the meeting.

Other party members said the DPJ should not play into the hands of the LDP by forcing Kan to resign.

That would throw the party into chaos and harm its public image, the official said, recalling when former DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama elected to resign in the middle of his term as party chief due to turmoil within the DPJ leadership.

DPJ supreme adviser Tsutomu Hata also said Kan does not need to follow Fukuda's example. Fukuda was in charge of all Cabinet affairs and yet had refused to reveal information about his premium payments while the Diet deliberated government-sponsored pension reform legislation.

Hata said Thursday that he did not pay his basic pension premiums between April 1986, when payment became legally mandatory for all lawmakers, and July 1995. Hata was prime minister between April and June 1994.

"The biggest problem is that the pension program is so complicated," he said. "Kan's problem has got more to do with what he said (in criticizing Cabinet members who didn't pay their premiums) than what he did."