Japan's new Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Takehiko
Endo resigned on Monday, one week after taking office, over a
scandal involving a farmers' group that he heads.
Endo decided to quit later Sunday and submitted the resignation
to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the premier's official residence on
Monday morning, becoming the third farm minister and the fifth
Cabinet minister to leave office since Abe stepped into power last
September.
At a press conference hold at the farm ministry shortly after,
Endo said he decided to resign "out of consideration for not
damaging public trust over farm administration," and apologized
from the bottom of his heart to the premier, according to Kyodo
News.
Analysts here said that the resignation will deal another blow
to Abe, who has to face the opposition bloc's criticism at the next
extraordinary Diet session on Sept. 10.
Newly appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Yukiko Sakamoto also resigned in the morning over a scandal
involving falsely-reported political expenditure.
Endo, 68, became farm minister a week ago when Abe reshuffled
his Cabinet on Aug. 27 to regain public trust after the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party's crushing defeat in an upper house
election in July.
Several days ago, the farmers' mutual aid association Endo
headed was found to have illegally obtained 1.15 million yen (US$9,
900) in government subsidies in 1999 by padding its membership
numbers when applying for a crop damage compensation scheme.
Edo, who has headed the group in Yamagata prefecture since 1982,
said Saturday that he was informed of the matter three years ago,
arguing that he was not directly involved with it.
Since Abe's first Cabinet formed in September 2006, three farm
ministers have failed to stay in the post. The late Toshikatsu
Matsuoka committed suicide in May over a fund scandal, while his
successor Norihiko Akagi resigned two months after taking the
post.
(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2007)
