A tale of two ministers

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May 28, 2007

Japanese Minister Commits Suicide

By MARTIN FACKLER
TOKYO, May 28 — Japan’s agricultural minister, Toshikatsu Matsuoka, killed himself today, just hours before he was to face parliamentary questioning on a political funding scandal, government officials said.

Analysts said Mr. Matsuoka’s suicide could deal a fresh blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose popularity ratings have fallen amid growing questions about his leadership.

Mr. Matsuoka, 62, died at a hospital after he was found unconscious in his Tokyo apartment following an attempt to hang himself, government officials said.

The national broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media said he had been found hanging from the hinge of a door in his living room but disclosed few other details.

His suicide was the first here by a serving cabinet minister since at least World War II.

Suicides have a long and often romanticized history in Japan, where they are still seen as a face-saving escape from public humiliation.

Since Mr. Abe took office in September, his administration has been marred by a series of financial scandals and policy missteps that have spurred criticisms of weak management and poor political judgment.

In recent months, the allegations against Mr. Matsuoka have become one of the biggest and most embarrassing political problems confronting the prime minister, who had refused to distance himself from his embattled agricultural minister. Mr. Matsuoka had come under increasing fire amid an investigation into bid- rigging in road construction projects, and in a separate scandal in which he was accused of padding office expenses charged to the government.

“This tragedy will be a big minus for Mr. Abe, at a time when he cannot afford it,” said Minoru Morita, a political analyst who runs an independent research ins ute in Tokyo. “It will force more details of the scandals into the public light, and guarantee that the public pays intense attention to them.”

Mr. Abe had continued to support Mr. Matsuoka even as Mr. Matsuoka’s defense of his actions began to border on the absurd.

In March, Mr. Matsuoka tried to quiet questions about 5.1 million yen, or about $42,000, he reported two years ago as the cost of utilities for his tiny Tokyo office by saying the money had been spent on purified water. “Nobody drinks tap water anymore,” Mr. Matsuoka explained to reporters at the time. The explanation quickly became the butt of national ridicule, prompting television crews and opposition politicians to visit the office to request a taste of the pricey purified water.

Despite growing calls in parliament and elsewhere for Mr. Matsuoka’s resignation, Mr. Abe steadfastly defended him, saying Mr. Matsuoka had detailed knowledge of agricultural policy.

The rising public outcry helped drive down Mr. Abe’s approval ratings in recent weeks, which hit a new low of 32 percent this month, down from 43 percent in April, according to a recent poll by the Mainichi Shimbun, a newspaper.

“He was certainly under pressure in parliament,” Mr. Abe said of Mr. Matsuoka after his death. “He was giving his all to the job, and I had very high expectations of him, so this is really too bad.”

A further drop in popularity is something the prime minister can ill afford, with key upper house elections approaching in July.

In April, Mr. Abe’s public approval enjoyed a brief rebound after a successful trip to Washington and a visit here by the Chinese prime minister that seemed to signal warmer ties with regional rival Beijing.

The bid-rigging scandal centered on an investigation by Tokyo prosecutors into companies that built forestry roads administered by Mr. Matsuoka’s agricultural ministry.

Last week, prosecutors arrested six construction industry executives and consultants on charges of violating anti-monopoly laws by allegedly colluding on bids. Mr. Matsuoka had come under increasing scrutiny amid widespread media reports that he had received at least $75,000 in political donations from some of the companies being investigated.

Mr. Matsuoka killed himself just hours before an audit committee of parliament’s upper house was scheduled to question him on his possible role in the bid-rigging scandal. But it was Mr. Matsuoka’s expenses that caught the most public attention.

In addition to the utilities expenses, public records also show that Mr. Matsuoka claimed another 142.8 million yen, or about $1.2 million, as “office costs” between 2001 and 2005, despite the fact his publicly-provided office in a parliamentary building was rent-free.

In response to the growing public outcry, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party proposed new rules requiring receipts for every expense over 50,000 yen, or about $415.

But the proposal backfired, drawing attention to the fact that lawmakers are not currently required to file receipts for many of the expenses they report to the government.

Opposition parties responded by calling for receipts to be required for all expenses, something the ruling party has resisted.


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May 28, 2007

Wolfowitz Blames Media for Resignation

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:04 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Departing World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in a radio interview broadcast Monday blamed an overheated atmosphere at the bank and in the media for forcing him to resign.

Wolfowitz, who has announced he will step down June 30, denied suggestions that his decision to leave was influenced by an apparent lack of support from the bank's employees.

''I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I'll leave it at that,'' he told the British Broadcasting Corp. ''People were reacting to a whole string of inaccurate statements and by the time we got to anything approximating accuracy the passions were around the bend.''

Wolfowitz said that he was pleased the bank's board accepted that he had acted ethically, and in good faith in his handling of a generous compensation package for his girlfriend and bank employee Shaha Riza in 2005.

''I accept the fact that by the time we got around to that, emotions here were so overheated that I don't think I could have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for the people I really care about,'' he said.

By tradition, the United States -- the bank's biggest financial contributor -- names an American to run the ins ution.

Wolfowitz's departure ends a two-year run at the development bank that was marked by controversy from the start, given his previous role as a major architect of the Iraq war when he served as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon.

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Wolfowitz blaming the media for HIS WORLD BANK FAILURE is like dubya blaming the Iraqis ("benchmarks or else!") for HIS FAILED OIL-GRAB WAR.

The world would be much better off if the Pope of Slime Karl Rove had led the entire Exec branch down to Guyana to drink the kool-aid.

[exstatic]

''I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I'll leave it at that,'' he told the British Broadcasting Corp. ''People were reacting to a whole string of inaccurate statements and by the time we got to anything approximating accuracy the passions were around the bend.''

I think it was much more about the passions around the bend.

Seriously, I think the WB was appalled when Bush shunted Failure Boy on them. His first mistake was going to be his last. I think the WB was on the verge of firing him and electing a non-American for the first time. That's how low our world status is right about now.

[Trainwreck2100]

WTF? The Japanese guy tried to hang himself? They're supposed to throw themselves on swords