WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Japan minister commits suicide
(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-28 21:33
TOKYO - A scandal-tainted minister in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet
committed suicide on Monday, compounding problems for the Japanese leader
whose support has slumped ahead of a July election.
It was the first suicide by a Japanese cabinet minister since the days
after Japan's defeat in World War Two, according to officials at the
national library.
"This will have serious political fallout, but at this point it's hard to
tell how much," a government official told Reuters.
Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka's suicide came as Abe's public
support rate fell to its lowest level since he took office last
September, due largely to voter anger over mismanagement of pension
premiums that could shortchange retirees.
The dent in Abe's popularity had already increased chances that his
ruling camp would lose its majority in the election for parliament's
upper house, his first big test at the polls.
Matsuoka, 62, under fire for a series of political funding scandals, died
in hospital after he was found unconscious in his room at a Tokyo
residential complex for lawmakers.
Police said he hanged himself but declined to comment on Japanese media
reports that he left five or six suicide notes.
Kyodo said one note was addressed to Abe and that another one with no
addressee said: "I am sorry for causing trouble".
A visibly-shaken Abe told reporters: "I am overwhelmed with shame. I
deeply hope his soul will rest in peace."
Matsuoka, who had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, had been scheduled to
be grilled again in parliament later on Monday.
Critics had charged that Abe was protecting Matsuoka, and the prime
minister's image would likely suffer in the short term, political
analysts said. But they added that the long-term fallout could depend on
how Abe handled the matter.
PENSION WOES
"It's hard to say what will happen. It depends on Abe's response," said
Jun Iio, a political science professor at the National Graduate Institute
for Political Studies.
"This could make it hard for the opposition to follow up on the scandals,
but it could also give the impression that there was something so bad
that he had to commit suicide."
Opposition leaders expressed shock at Matsuoka's suicide.
"It's regrettable that Prime Minister Abe didn't make (Matsuoka) explain
himself to the public," Mizuho Fukushima, leader of the tiny Social
Democratic Party told reporters. "The prime minister has heavy
responsibility over this."
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates among industrialised nations,
which experts attribute partly to an absence of religious prohibition
against taking one's own life and the tradition of committing suicide to
atone for failure or to save loved ones from embarrassment.
Abe's administration was already under fire after the Social Insurance
Agency, which manages the pension system, acknowledged that it had failed
to keep proper track of 50 million premium payments.
Abe has said his government would try to sort out the problem and ensure
full payments were made, but voters appeared unconvinced.
Only 32 percent of the voters who responded to a weekend survey by the
Mainichi newspaper backed Abe, down 11 points from April, while a poll by
the Nikkei business daily put the prime minister's support rate at 41
percent, down 12 points.
The Mainichi survey showed that 42 percent of the voters want the main
opposition Democratic Party to win the July election, compared with 33
percent who want Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to win.
The LDP and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, need to win a
total of 64 seats out of 121 up for grabs in the July election to keep
their majority in the 242-seat upper house.
Loss of a majority in the upper house would not require Abe to resign,
since the lower chamber picks the premier. But it could increase calls
within his party to step down and would also mean that the opposition
could block key legislation and delay economic reforms.
Legislative deadlock could force the prime minister to call a snap
election for the lower house, analysts said, although no lower house
election is required until 2009.
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