Japan minister ‘suicide’ before affair claim -reports

JAPAN: Japan’s financial services minister died in an apparent suicide two days before a tabloid magazine was set to reveal claims the married 73-year-old was involved with another woman, reports said Tuesday.

Tadahiro Matsushita, 73, who was Japan’s third Financial Services Agency minister in three years, had been in his position for just three months, following a cabinet reshuffle in June by Yoshihiko Noda, prime minister. Matsushita’s apparent suicide could further complicate matters for a ruling coalition battered by internal divisions and parliamentary gridlock.

On Monday, Noda visited the hospital where Matsushita’s body was taken and told reporters he was “very surprised at the sad news.” Matsushita was from the coalition’s junior partner, the People’s New party, which has filled the FSA post since the ruling Democratic party came to power in 2009.

State broadcaster NHK said Matsushita was the first cabinet minister to die in office since the suicide in May 2007 of then agriculture minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka.

The late agriculture minister died hours before he was due to testify to a parliamentary committee investigating allegations he received donations from companies awarded contracts by a government affiliate.

Matsushita had not been linked to any scandal. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan has suffered multiple defections in recent months and the prime minister is being challenged by three Diet colleagues in a leadership election.

Noda’s government is unpopular and faces heavy pressure from opposition groups that have been using their control of the Diet’s upper house to block legislation in an effort to force an early election.

Tokyo Financial Times