Japan Gov't Crisis: Justice Minister Hobnobbed With Mobsters
Revelations that his newly appointed Justice Minister associated with mobsters have heaped further woes on Japanese PM Noda.
First Publish: 10/22/2012, 12:58 AM
Keishu Tanaka
Reuters
The government of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda
continues to sustain shock after shock, with the imminent departure of
Keishu Tanaka, the Justice Minister. Even though the 74 -year-old Tanaka
has refused to resign and hospitalized himself to ward off the
pestering, it is hard to see how he can survive in a post that he only
assumed 18 days ago.
He also docked a parliamentary hearing and the
opposition-controlled upper house, in violation of article 63 of the
Japanese Constitution.
First, the Democratic Party
of Japan branch that Tanaka headed received donations from a Taiwanese
businessman living in Japan. Japanese law bars politicians from
receiving contributions from foreigners or foreign controlled
corporations.
A few years back, this law was even used when a Korean restaurant owner who had been living in Japan for 40 years and was a personal friend of a politician, gave a small campaign donation.
It was also revealed that the Justice Minister, 30 years
ago, attended a party run by a yakuza (Japanese organized crime) bigwig.
While the Justice Minister at first claimed that this was ancient
history, Tanaka, reported the Daily Beast, kept up relations with the Japanese mafia on the basis of interviews with gang members and police officers.
With such damning information, even members of the DPJ have called upon the minister to resign.
As Tanaka is presumably dead meat, the opposition is using
the affair to further discredit Prime Minister Noda. The recent cabinet
reshuffle was advertised as improving government performance, but the
Prime Minister's track record in cabinet selection has not proven
fortunate. Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba criticized Noda and said he bore the responsibility for appointing such an unsuitable candidate for the job.
Tags: Japan
Labels: Corruption, Crime, Japan
posted by Pieface @ Monday, October 22, 2012
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