Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida yesterday dismissed his fourth minister in two months to patch a scandal-tainted Cabinet that has raised questions over his judgement of staff credentials.
Kenya Akiba, who was Japanese minister for reconstruction, has faced allegations of mishandling political and election funds, and of having murky ties to the Unification Church, whose cozy political ties and practices surrounding followers’ huge donations have raised controversy.
“I have made a heavy decision and submitted my resignation,” Akiba told reporters after meeting with Kishida.
Photo: AFP
He said he had not contravened any laws in relation to the issues over which he has been criticized.
Kishida tapped former Japanese minister for reconstruction Hiromichi Watanabe as a replacement. Watanabe’s appointment would be made official after a palace ceremony.
Akiba’s dismissal was seen as Kishida’s attempt to remove a soft spot in the administration that could stall upcoming parliamentary work on a key budget bill, including hefty defense spending aimed at bolstering Japan’s strike capability.
Jun Azumi, a senior lawmaker of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan who has criticized Kishida as making other slow decisions on his staff, said on Monday that “four [dismissals] are too much and the prime minister should be held responsible over their appointment.”
Kishida yesterday also replaced Mio Sugita as Japanese vice minister for internal affairs and communications. She has made past derogatory remarks against sexual and ethnic minorities.
Sugita in 2018 said that same-sex couples do not produce children and are “unproductive,” and in 2016 scoffed at those wearing traditional ethnic costumes at an UN’ committee meeting as “middle-aged women in costume play.”
Sugita submitted her resignation saying that she cannot bend her beliefs, while retracting some of her earlier comments, Kishida said.
Kishida had been seen as a stable choice as leader after his victory in July, but his popularity has plummeted over the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) widespread church ties that surfaced after the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe.
The suspected shooter told investigators that his mother’s donations to the church had bankrupted his family and ruined his life.
He reportedly targeted Abe as a key figure behind the church’s ties to Japan’s LDP-led government.
Revelations have since surfaced about many LDP lawmakers having ties to the church, which has been criticized for allegedly brainwashing followers into making huge donations. A new law passed by the Japanese parliament earlier this month aims to restrict such activities.
Daishiro Yamagiwa quit as Japanese minister of economic revitalization on Oct. 24 after failing to explain his ties to the Unification Church.
Early last month, Yasuhiro Hanashi resigned as Japanese minister of justice after saying that his job is low-profile and only makes the news when he signs the death penalty.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS