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Japan FM decides to quit-Kyodo
Source: Agencies |
March 6, 2011, Sunday
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Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, often cited as a possible new leader if Japan's unpopular prime minister steps down, has decided to resign after criticism for accepting political donations from a foreign national, Kyodo news agency and other media reported today.
Maehara's resignation would be a blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his ruling Democratic Party as Kan fights to keep his job and avoid calling a snap election while trying to enact budget bills in a divided parliament and keeping his own party from unravelling.
Maehara had admitted on Friday accepting donations from a Korean resident of Japan, but said he had done so unknowingly. Taking political donations from foreign nationals is illegal if done intentionally.
Maehara had said he would not quit, but added that it was up to the prime minister to decide his fate.
Earlier today Japan's biggest opposition party had called on Maehara to resign, piling pressure on Kan's embattled government.
"A foreign minister is at the forefront of negotiations with foreign countries. If a person in that post has taken donations from foreign nationals, resignation is unavoidable," Yosuke Takagi, acting secretary-general of the New Komeito party, said in a televised debate.
New Komeito is the second-largest opposition behind the Liberal Democratic Party.
Hirofumi Nakasone, head of the LDP's upper house caucus, joined Takagi by saying at another TV debate programme that Maehara should "take responsibility" for the problematic donations.
Kan, whose voter ratings have slid to around 20 percent, himself faces calls from within his own fractious Democratic Party to resign, while opposition parties are pushing him to call a snap election that the Democrats would be in danger of losing.
The stalemate is blocking the passage of bills needed to implement a US$1 trillion budget for the fiscal year from April.
It is also preventing Kan from getting opposition help on tax reforms, including a future rise in the 5 percent sales tax, that he argues are vital to fund the costs of a fast-ageing society and curb public debt already twice the size of the US$5 trillion economy.
Maehara's resignation would be a blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his ruling Democratic Party as Kan fights to keep his job and avoid calling a snap election while trying to enact budget bills in a divided parliament and keeping his own party from unravelling.
Maehara had admitted on Friday accepting donations from a Korean resident of Japan, but said he had done so unknowingly. Taking political donations from foreign nationals is illegal if done intentionally.
Maehara had said he would not quit, but added that it was up to the prime minister to decide his fate.
Earlier today Japan's biggest opposition party had called on Maehara to resign, piling pressure on Kan's embattled government.
"A foreign minister is at the forefront of negotiations with foreign countries. If a person in that post has taken donations from foreign nationals, resignation is unavoidable," Yosuke Takagi, acting secretary-general of the New Komeito party, said in a televised debate.
New Komeito is the second-largest opposition behind the Liberal Democratic Party.
Hirofumi Nakasone, head of the LDP's upper house caucus, joined Takagi by saying at another TV debate programme that Maehara should "take responsibility" for the problematic donations.
Kan, whose voter ratings have slid to around 20 percent, himself faces calls from within his own fractious Democratic Party to resign, while opposition parties are pushing him to call a snap election that the Democrats would be in danger of losing.
The stalemate is blocking the passage of bills needed to implement a US$1 trillion budget for the fiscal year from April.
It is also preventing Kan from getting opposition help on tax reforms, including a future rise in the 5 percent sales tax, that he argues are vital to fund the costs of a fast-ageing society and curb public debt already twice the size of the US$5 trillion economy.
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