Japan's opposition-led upper house of parliament yesterday voted down government appointments for the first time in 56 years, signaling confrontation amid a row over supporting the US-led "war on terror."
The act of defiance came just one day after the upper house, which the opposition took over in landmark July elections, was sent a bill to resume the military mission supporting the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is pushing the upper house to compromise and restart the naval mission, which provided fuel to coalition forces in the Indian Ocean. It was suspended this month owing to the legislative deadlock.
political paralysis
The failed government-nominated appointments highlighted the political paralysis in Tokyo as Fukuda prepares to head this week to the US, Japan's main ally, on his first foreign trip as premier.
The upper house of the divided parliament refused to endorse three of 28 nominees for government posts over objections from the opposition, a parliamentary official said.
It is the first time since 1951 that parliament failed to endorse government nominations, he said.
Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party has been in power for all but 10 months since its founding in 1955.
The opposition won the last elections amid voter anger over scandals under Fukuda's predecessor Shinzo Abe, who quit in September, citing in part the opposition's refusal to support the "war on terror."
former bureaucrats
The three nominees rejected yesterday were former senior bureaucrats whom the ruling bloc had wanted to reappoint as members of government councils related to the ministry or government agencies where they used to work.
The opposition argued the appointments would be a form of amakudari -- or descent from heaven -- Japan's controversial practice of former bureaucrats landing cushy jobs after retirement in the fields they once served.
"We were able to put the brakes on excessive amakudari," Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters.
Chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura demanded a clearer explanation from the opposition, saying it would be "against equality under law" if nominees were turned down only because they were former bureaucrats.
Machimura said the government needed to tread carefully in the divided parliament.
"We presented the nominations in the belief the three are the best. As we will not be able to find replacements instantly, we want to cautiously look at our next step," he told reporters.
rejection
One of the rejected nominees was Masakazu Nagao, a former transport ministry bureaucrat who has served since 2004 on a council advising on transport fares. The government wanted to reappoint him to the council for another three years.
If confirmed, he would have earned ?17.97 million (US$162,000) a year and also received a "retirement" allowance of ?3.74 million for finishing the previous three-year term, the Asahi Shimbun said.
The lower house can override the upper house on ordinary bills, but both chambers must approve nominations for 36 government bodies.
The move fueled speculation that the opposition may also flex its muscle when the government nominates a replacement for Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui after his five-year term ends in March.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS