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Mix-Ansicht- Japan's Banken - es wird enger - Popeye, 19.04.2002, 07:35
- Re: Japan's Banken - es wird enger / Und dann noch die Politik..... - XERXES, 19.04.2002, 07:53
Re: Japan's Banken - es wird enger / Und dann noch die Politik.....
(Adds resignation in paragraph three)
By Linda Sieg
TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's scandal-tainted ruling party suffered a new blow on Friday with the resignation of the speaker of parliament's Upper House over allegations that an aide took kickbacks.
The affair is the latest in a rash of scandals in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that have sparked a slide in Koizumi's popularity ratings -- his main weapon against LDP old guard rivals who oppose his agenda for economic and political reforms.
Upper House speaker Yutaka Inoue -- who has denied the allegations -- resigned from his position as speaker after threats by opposition parties to boycott business in the chamber.
Inoue, in a closed-door session with ruling and opposition lawmakers on Thursday, denied allegations by a magazine this month that an aide had received hefty kickbacks from a construction firm in connection with a public works project.
Top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference that the impact on parliamentary business could not be ignored.
"We expect the Upper House to make every effort to avoid confusion," Fukuda said, before Inoue resigned.
LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki told a news conference the decision on whether to resign had been up to Inoue, but media said Upper House heavyweight Mikio Aoki had met Koizumi to discuss the issue.
Koizumi soared to power one year ago, buoyed by promises to clean up the long-ruling party and revive the stagnant economy.
But doubts over his commitment to reform, the sacking in January of his popular foreign minister and the LDP scandals have slashed Koizumi's ratings in opinion polls to close to 40 percent from the heady 90 percent seen when he first took office.
SCANDAL MENU
Japanese voters have been treated to an almost daily diet of scandals since Koizumi sacked the controversial Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister to end a feud with diplomats and their LDP backers that had threatened the enactment of the state budget.
Even Koizumi has not been immune from attack by tabloids whose content consists largely of gossip, sex and scandals.
The prime minister last week flatly denied allegations that his brother, who serves as his private secretary, had been involved in shady deals while working for a consulting company.
Earlier this year, LDP heavyweight Muneo Suzuki was forced to leave the party over allegations that he had meddled in the awarding of government aid projects.
Pro-reform lawmaker Koichi Kato, a long-time Koizumi ally and former LDP secretary-general, was forced to quit the party and parliament over the alleged misuse of public funds and the arrest of a former aide accused of tax evasion.
Former Foreign Minister Tanaka herself is also in the scandal hotseat, but has strenuously denied media reports of misuse of public funds provided to pay the salary of an aide.
The scandals are eroding support for the LDP among voters who were lured back to the party by Koizumi's maverick style.
A ruling coalition-backed candidate lost a local election to an independent late last month and two parliamentary by-elections on April 28 will provide more clues to electoral fallout.
"The elections will be an important watershed," said Shigenori Okazaki, a political analyst at UBS Warburg.
"If they lose one, maybe that's okay. If they lose two, Yamasaki will be vulnerable and that will weaken Koizumi."
(Addition reporting by Ami Miyazaki)
((Tokyo Newsroom +81-3 3432 8018
tokyo.newsroom@reuters.com))
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