The entire leadership of Japan's biggest opposition party resigned yesterday over a scandal surrounding an e-mail falsely accusing a ruling party leader's son of financial links with disgraced Internet company Livedoor.
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Seiji Maehara and his lieutenants' resignations were the latest blow to the group in the scandal, which has deeply damaged the only credible competitor to the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
"It is my responsibility that the problem was not dealt with immediately," Maehara said following his resignation.
PHOTO: AP
The DPJ issued a public apology earlier this month after it found that allegations made by lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata in Parliament -- in which he alleged financial links between the son of LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe and Livedoor Co. -- were unfounded.
Nagata had backed up his allegations with a purported e-mail from Livedoor president Takafumi Horie ordering a company official to pay Takebe's son. But Nagata later acknowledged he was unable to verify the e-mail's authenticity.
Nagata has expressed his intention to give up his parliamentary seat, Maehara said.
The scandal and the resignation of the DPJ leadership have been harsh on the party, which as recently as a year ago was considered a serious contender for the power held by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's LDP.
But the party was decimated in elections for the powerful lower house of parliament in September as Koizumi rode a wave of popularity and support for his reform program.
Maehara took charge of the party after the post-election resignation of leader Katsuya Okada, but under his leadership the party was unable to regain its earlier popularity.
Maehara said he hoped his stepping down would set the stage for the party to rebuild.
"I arrived at my decision to take responsibility as the country's largest opposition party, to win back the public's trust and to achieve the party goal of taking over the government in the next election," he said.
Horie and four other Livedoor executives have been under arrest since January on charges of doctoring financial results, artificially inflating stocks and providing false information about earnings of a subsidiary.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS