Japanese Minister of Defense Yasuo Ichikawa faces the sack, reports said yesterday, after a series of gaffes including describing the rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen as a “sexual orgy incident.”
Ichikawa, who has only been in office for four months, was censured by the Diet’s opposition-controlled upper house last month, as was Japanese Minister of Consumer Affairs Kenji Yamaoka, who backed an alleged pyramid sales firm.
Both men are expected to be removed in a Cabinet reshuffle by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Jiji Press news agency and other media reported.
Noda, who took office in early September, is considering dismissing them in a bid to gain cooperation from the opposition to pass a budget and a package of tax and social reform bills through parliament, they said.
Ichikawa has committed or been linked to a series of gaffes that have offended the people of Okinawa, reluctant hosts to a large US military presence.
One of his officials was dismissed after likening the government’s foot-dragging on plans to relocate the US military base to forewarning a woman of the intention to rape her.
In 1995 three US servicemen raped a 12-year-old girl on Okinawa, a crime that galvanized local resentment of the US presence.
Ichikawa claimed not to know the details of the rape, and at a press conference called it a “sexual orgy incident.”
He also skipped a palace banquet in November in honor of visiting royals from Bhutan in favor of a political fundraiser he said was “more important.”
In addition to being admonished for alleged ties to shady business groups before he became consumer affairs minister, Yamaoka has also come under fire over comments he made in a New Year address.
“I privately think the next biggest tsunami that will come soon could be the collapse of the euro,” he said, remarks seen as belittling the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeast Japan and left more than 20,000 people dead or missing.
Noda, the latest holder of Japan’s revolving-door premiership, is expected to conduct the reshuffle possibly on Friday or in the following week, before the Diet reopens at the end of this month, the reports said.
The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party has threatened to boycott the legislature if the pair stay in place.
Jiji said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura had told all ministers to make sure that they attend a Cabinet meeting scheduled for Friday, while Japanese Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy Motohisa Furukawa has cancelled a visit to the US originally scheduled to take place from Tuesday to Sunday.
However, the expected Cabinet reshuffle could be delayed until early next month to coincide with the planned launch of a new government agency tasked with reconstructing areas devastated by the disasters in March last year, the reports said.
Kyodo News agency said the reshuffle would be minor.
Possible candidates to succeed Ichikawa as defense minister include ruling-party lawmaker Yuichiro Hata, son of former Japanese prime minister Tsutomu Hata, Kyodo said, quoting anonymous sources.
In recent polls support for Noda’s government has fallen to somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent from 50 percent to 60 percent soon after its launch, amid criticism over his handling of the nuclear crisis that followed the disasters in March last year and plans to raise taxes.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of