Japan’s ex-Finance Minister found dead at home

JAPAN: Former Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa was found dead Sunday at his home in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward, local media reported.

Police said that Nakagawa was lying face down on a bed and no apparent external wounds were detected.

On Feb. 17, Nakagawa stepped down as finance minister in former Prime Minister Taro Aso’s cabinet over allegations he appeared drunk at a recent G7 summit in Rome. Nakagawa slurred his speech, at times appeared half asleep and had trouble answering questions from reporters at a news conference following the Group of Seven (G7) financial leaders’ meeting in the Italian capital on Feb. 14.

A graduate from the University of Tokyo, Nakagawa won his first lower house seat in 1983.

Tokyo, Sunday, Xinhua