Japan Finance Minister Quits Over Drunk Claim

WONG:
And moving onto Japan... In a fresh blow to widely unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso, his Finance Minister has quit over being drunk at a major G7 gathering in Italy. Heres the full report.

STORY:
Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Tuesday he would resign, after being forced to deny he was drunk at a weekend G7 news conference.

The move, a fresh blow to the widely unpopular Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, could take weeks as Nakagawa intends to stay until budget bills are passed.

The government's junior coalition partner was dissatisfied with the delay in Nakagawa's stepping down, while the emboldened opposition has demanded he go immediately.

Aso reportedly intends to appoint current Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano to follow Nakagawa, but the news comes as Cabinet support plummets to below 10 percent in a recent survey.

Yosano, 70, came in second in the party race to become premier, and is seen as a linchpin of the weak administration.

Nakagawa apologized for the incident when he slurred his speech and appeared to fall asleep, blaming it on "careless health management".

The finance minister said cold medicine had affected his behavior, while he had only sipped some wine before the event.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• ntdtv
• news
• Shoichi
• Nakagawa
• weekend
• G7
• conference

[goodgirl8790]

lol!