Japan’s Farm Minister to quit in fresh blow to Abe

JAPAN: Japan’s farm minister decided Sunday to resign over a money scandal, less than a week after being appointed by embattled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a bid to clean up his government’s image, reports said.

The resignation would deliver a new blow to Abe’s government, whose approval ratings had just started to rebound from a stinging election defeat in July, which had come in the wake of a slew of scandals involving his cabinet.

Takehiko Endo, who took office on Monday last week in a reshuffle, agreed to quit after the new opposition-controlled upper house of parliament threatened him with a censure motion, Kyodo News and public broadcaster NHK reported.

Endo would be the fifth person to leave the cabinet, besides those removed in the reshuffle, since Abe took over nearly a year ago. His tenure would be the shortest in memory of any Japanese minister.

Abe has had particularly bad luck with farm ministers. His first one hanged himself under the cloud of an investigation over dirty money and his successor quit after similar allegations.

Endo, who had acknowledged that few people wanted the farm minister’s job, apologised over two incidents that have come to light since he took office.

Endo admitted that an aid association he heads for farmers in his district received 1.15 million yen (10,000 dollars) in extra government payments in 1999 by padding its membership list.

Endo also admitted his election office separately accepted 50,000 yen in 2005 from a farm cooperative in a donation that was prohibited as the group received state subsidies.

He had earlier vowed to stay on as minister, saying Saturday: “I must not make this problem grow bigger by resigning as minister.”

Tokyo Monday, AFP