Japan’s transport minister resigned yesterday after a string of gaffes, dealing a major blow to Prime Minister Taro Aso who took office barely a week ago.
The resignation of Nariaki Nakayama marked a rocky start for Aso, who took office on Wednesday with the lowest public support of any newly appointed prime minister in eight years.
The latest newspaper polls showed his approval rating at just below 50 percent.
“I handed my resignation to the prime minister and he accepted,” Nakayama told a news conference.
Nakayama said if he had stayed on, the opposition would have wasted time in parliament questioning him about his recent mistakes in an effort to derail economic discussions. Aso is to give a major policy speech there today.
The resignation follows remarks by Nakayama on Saturday when he called Japan’s largest teachers’ union “a cancer,” the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun said. He also said the Japan Teachers Union should be abolished.
The 320,000-strong union has demanded an apology and a retraction of his comments.
“We are totally flabbergasted by his comments. We questioned his judgment,” union secretary-general, Yasunaga Okamoto said.
Nakayama’s resignation drew criticism even from within Aso’s Cabinet.
“It will give an impression that the new government is already in disarray,” Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa told reporters.
Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said it was not “a plus” for the fledgling administration.
Japan’s largest opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), said Aso was to blame for the scandal because he appointed Nakayama as a minister.
“It is a matter of course that he resigned. Aso also has grave responsibility” for bringing Nakayama into the Cabinet, Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the DPJ, told reporters in Shiga.
His comments were broadcast on TV news channels.
Aside from lashing at the union, Nakayama said last week that Japan is “ethnically homogenous,” drawing criticism from the Ainu, Aborigines in northern Japan.
Also See: Junichiro Koizumi announces he will retire from politics
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
‘DIRE’: Taiwan would not engage in ‘dollar diplomacy,’ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, after China reportedly offered Honduras up to US$3 billion to establish relations The government yesterday recalled its ambassador to Honduras after the Central American nation sent its foreign minister to China, signaling that it would sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Suspicions concerning ties with Honduras are rife after Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country would pursue diplomatic ties with China. Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina traveled to China on Wednesday “to promote efforts for the establishment of diplomatic relations” on instructions from Castro, Reuters yesterday quoted Honduran presidential spokesman Ivis Alvarado as saying. The government “has decided to immediately recall the ambassador to Honduras
‘NOTHING NEW’: China should not use Tsai Ing-wen’s transits through the US as a pretext to step up aggressive activity in the Taiwan Strait, a Washington official said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to stop over in the US on her way to and from Central America next week, but her administration would not confirm a meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Tsai’s delegation is to leave Taipei on Wednesday next week and stop over in New York City, Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) told a news conference yesterday. Tsai is then to head to Guatemala on Saturday next week for talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and to meet with Taiwanese expatriates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. On April 3, Tsai is scheduled to travel
MEDIA, SOCIETY FOCUS: Doublethink Lab said that Beijing is trying to coerce countries that rely on China economically to pursue policies in its favor China has stronger influence over Taiwan’s media and society than any other country, the Taipei-based Doublethink Lab think tank said yesterday, as it announced its China Index gauging Beijing’s global influence. Taiwan ranked 11th overall among 82 countries assessed, but first in terms of social and media influence, Doublethink Lab chairman Puma Shen (沈伯洋) told a news conference in Taipei. More than 200 experts and academics participated in the project, including some highly influential figures, Shen said. The index collects information from countries worldwide to gauge China’s influence and assess how Chinese policies affect them, Shen said. In terms of Chinese
RSS