THE BATTERED government of Prime minister Taro Aso has been dealt a serious and perhaps fatal blow by the resignation of his finance minister.
Shoichi Nakagawa, one of Mr Aso’s closest allies, said yesterday he would quit to take responsibility for apparently being drunk at a weekend G7 meeting of finance ministers in Rome.
Television pictures shown around the world from the G7 showed Mr Nakagawa (55) slurring his words and nodding off during a press conference, a performance he later blamed on a cold medicine.
“I decided that it would be better for the country if I quit,” he said yesterday after meeting the prime minister. “I apologised for having caused a great deal of trouble . . . by not taking good enough care of my health.” Mr Nakagawa had previously said he would stay until the government’s 2009 budget cleared parliament, but the threat yesterday of a boycott by the opposition, including the Democratic Party (DPJ), forced his hand.
Mr Aso moved quickly yesterday to smother the fallout from the scandal, which overshadowed a state visit by new US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, handing over the finance portfolio to economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano.
But with his government mired in historically low support levels and the economy shrivelling at its fastest rate since the mid-1970s, Mr Nakagawa’s resignation will also fuel calls for the prime minister to go.
Mr Aso’s attempts to hold his fragmenting party, the ruling Liberal Democrats (LDP) together were badly damaged last week following withering criticism by the still popular former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi.
Recent polls show the government has the support of fewer than one in 10 Japanese, and some political commentators are now openly calling Mr Aso a lame-duck leader.
“My guess is that Mr Aso is now finished,” said Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Tokyo’s Sophia University. “His party is in turmoil and seems to be basically falling apart.” The prime minister, who has been in office for less than five months, has resisted demands for a general election, which he must do by September. If he leaves office, he will be Japan’s fourth leader in three years.
Many analysts predict that the LDP will fall this year, ending a half-century of almost continuous rule. Polls show the DPJ has a good chance of taking the reins of power.